Direct2Dellhttp://en.community.dell.com/dell-blogs/direct2dell/en-USZimbra Community 8Manufacturers and Big Data Analytics: Strange Bedfellows?http://en.community.dell.com/dell-blogs/direct2dell/b/direct2dell/archive/2015/02/26/manufacturers-and-big-data-analytics-strange-bedfellowsThu, 26 Feb 2015 18:05:00 GMTJoanna Schloss<p>During the Super Bowl XLIX telecast earlier this month, I was captivated by a commercial from <a href="http://www.weathertech.com/?gclid=CI-qh6X_7MMCFZSCaQod7FcAyA">MacNeil Automotive Products</a>, not because I&rsquo;m in the market for new car accessories. Rather, I was blown away that the little-known maker of WeatherTech all-weather floor mats and cargo liners would pay an estimated $4 million for a 30-second spot alongside big-name brands, such as Coca-Cola, Snickers, Doritos and Budweiser. <span style="text-decoration:underline;"></span></p>
<p><a href="/cfs-file/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/football_2D00_data_5F00_275x220.jpg"><img src="/resized-image/__size/275x220/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/football_2D00_data_5F00_275x220.jpg" width="275" height="220" alt="image of football player catching ball with an overlay of zeros and ones to symbolize data" style="float:left;margin-left:10px;margin-right:10px;" /></a>I couldn&rsquo;t help but think that somehow big data analytics played a role in the company&rsquo;s decision to spend big bucks to air a commercial during the Super Bowl. If so, this is a great example of how data can help organizations of all types and sizes take advantage of &ldquo;in the spotlight&rdquo; opportunities. In this particular case, providing the insight necessary to justify an investment that represented roughly 10 percent of the company&rsquo;s purported annual advertising budget.</p>
<p>At first, this scenario seemed like a pairing of strange bedfellows till I realized that manufacturers actually have an edge over other industries, as this sector was among the first to make widespread data collection a standard practice. MacNeil has long had the ability to track and monitor much of what&rsquo;s happening on its production line, so it makes sense that the company would be well positioned to know what happens to its products after they&rsquo;ve come off the assembly line.</p>
<p>I&rsquo;m sure big data provided some assurances to MacNeil that investing in a Super Bowl commercial made good fiscal sense. And, from what I&rsquo;ve read about this so far, it did. As founder David MacNeil explained in a <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/dalebuss/2015/02/02/super-bowl-redux-weathertech-fleshes-out-made-in-usa-message/print/">Forbes</a> article that appeared right after this year&rsquo;s Big Game, the decision to run a commercial was driven in part by the success of last year&rsquo;s Super Bowl ad.</p>
<p>That&rsquo;s right, the &ldquo;little automotive products engine that could&rdquo; debuted its first Super Bowl commercial in 2014; experiencing an 80 percent increase in website traffic and 57 percent jump in calls to its 800 number in the month following the placement. So running another ad in the Super Bowl was a smart business decision. And, based on the buzz created by this year&rsquo;s ad, which reinforced the company&rsquo;s heavily patriotic &ldquo;Made in America&rdquo; mantra, I predict WeatherTech products will be back next year for a three-peat!</p>
<p>What&rsquo;s most interesting to me about this example is how this successful use case of big data analytics didn&rsquo;t come from a really big manufacturer, just a really smart one.</p>
<p>There are endless opportunities to mine both big and small amounts of data to produce meaningful, actionable business insight. Another prime example that comes to mind involves <a href="https://www.polyformus.com/">Polyform U.S. Ltd.</a>, the world&rsquo;s leading manufacturer of marine products, including buoys, fenders and mooring accessories.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.facebook.com/pages/Polyform-US/600490573330367?fref=photo" title="Polyform-US on Facebook"><img src="/resized-image/__size/550x300/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/polyform_2D00_bouys_2D00_fenders_5F00_550x.jpg" alt=" " /></a></p>
<p>A customer of <a href="http://software.dell.com/solutions/big-data-analytics/">Dell Software&rsquo;s big data analytics solutions</a>, Polyform accesses a slew of different data sources while taking advantage of Hadoop.</p>
<p style="margin-left:30px;"><em>&ldquo;We can easily access, connect and visualize all kinds of data to attain a complete, global view of raw materials, competitive pricing and everything else that goes into making and marketing our world-class products,&rdquo;</em> says Art Kuntz, IT manager for Polyform U.S. Ltd.</p>
<p>As a result, Polyform can easily attain a complete global view of every facet of its business, which has translated into increased automation, productivity and operational efficiencies. These benefits are within reach of any organization that understands the value of its data as well as the ability to collect and analyze it. Again, here&rsquo;s where I think manufacturers, in particular, are well positioned to capitalize on a rich data collection heritage to drive new revenue streams through cross-selling and up-selling.</p>
<p>As a crafting enthusiast, I&rsquo;m struck by the seemingly endless opportunities for makers of just about everything from paper to metalwork to reach new legions of customers with unique products to fuel a favorite pastime. I&rsquo;m probably stating the obvious, but there&rsquo;s a very specific demographic spending lots of dollars in this area and manufacturers can readily figure this out through data collected from crowdsourcing or targeted marketing efforts.</p>
<p>Having access to vast amounts of usage data that&rsquo;s been sliced, diced and analyzed is the best way to improve customer experiences while revealing new revenue streams. Additionally, it&rsquo;s the best route to forecasting which products are likely to gain rapid adoption.</p>
<p>In the future, I expect to see manufacturers lead the way in pre-emptively seeding the market with new products based on an analysis of social media metrics, among other data sources. Companies across all sectors can learn from the manufacturing industry, which traditionally has done a good job of staying in tune with their customers&rsquo; wants and needs while utilizing collective customer intelligence to inform product development.</p>
<p>In that sense, it&rsquo;s not strange at all to find manufacturers taking advantage of big data analytics to augment and amplify business direction. In the future, I expect we&rsquo;ll see many more examples of companies like MacNeil Automotive Products and Polyform along with natural synergies between scores of seemingly strange bedfellows.</p>
<p>What new partnerships do you think will be proven in time? Drop me a line at <a href="mailto:Joanna.schloss@software.dell.com">Joanna.schloss@software.dell.com</a> for continued commentary on the new alliances that will come from a need and respect for big data analytics.</p><div style="clear:both;"></div>Opening the Door to OpenStackhttp://en.community.dell.com/dell-blogs/direct2dell/b/direct2dell/archive/2015/02/25/opening-the-door-to-openstackWed, 25 Feb 2015 23:00:00 GMTDELL-Sam R<p>In most discussions about enterprise private clouds, an OpenStack solution will be part of the mix. Some early success stories help make OpenStack appear to be a desirable and viable option. For example, a glance at<a href="http://www.con-nect.com.au/agenda_openstack.html"> the agenda</a> for the April 21<sup>st</sup> OpenStack conference in Melbourne promises case studies showing how Time Warner Cable and GoDaddy leveraged OpenStack as an enterprise private cloud platform. &nbsp;</p>
<p>Dell, of course, can cite OpenStack successes such as deployments at the <a href="http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/555/corporate~case-studies~en/documents~2013-univ-alabama-10012807.pdf">University of Alabama at Birmingham</a> and the <a href="http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/555/corporate~case-studies~en/documents~2014-informatics-10012456-intercloud-openstack.pdf">National Institute of Informatics</a> in Japan, and we have been <a href="http://i.dell.com/sites/doccontent/corporate/case-studies/en/Documents/2013-dell-openstack-10012180.pdf">using OpenStack internally</a> for some time now.</p>
<p><a href="/cfs-file/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/informatics_2D00_japan_5F00_550x300.jpg"><img src="/resized-image/__size/550x300/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/informatics_2D00_japan_5F00_550x300.jpg" alt=" " /></a></p>
<p>Meanwhile, analyst firm Gartner issued a report earlier in February asking the question, &quot;<a href="https://www.gartner.com/doc/2976226/openstack-ready-mainstream-private-cloud">Is OpenStack Ready for Mainstream Private Cloud Adoption</a>?&quot; (the answer is that it depends on the needs of the particular enterprise) and the research firm 451 Research projected a few months ago that OpenStack revenue will <a href="https://451research.com/images/Marketing/press_releases/09.09.14_OpenStack_Press_Release.pdf">pass the $1 billion mark</a> this year.</p>
<p>The right platform for your enterprise&rsquo;s private cloud will likely be different from the right platform for others, but if OpenStack is on your short list, here are two key considerations to keep in mind. First, if you go down the OpenStack path, it&rsquo;s important to engage with a provider that has specific and deep OpenStack expertise. Sounds obvious, but in practice finding a provider with a demonstrable, documented track record of success in OpenStack requires some diligence.</p>
<p>Second, choosing OpenStack does not necessarily put you on the hook for attracting and retaining OpenStack private cloud staff; it&rsquo;s possible and practical to take a hybrid IT approach in which you outsource the day-to-day management of your private cloud, even if it&rsquo;s on your premises or in your data center.</p>
<p>At Dell, our approach to OpenStack reflects that fact that we have been an OpenStack pioneer. As a result of our long and close engagement with Red Hat, Dell can get a private cloud <a href="http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/04/solutions/openstack">up and running quickly</a> with certified reference architectures. We also provide comprehensive <a href="http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/04/services/dell-managed-cloud-services">Managed Cloud Services</a> that can take on the day-to-day management of your cloud, from the hardware to the hypervisor and up to the virtual machines and applications running in them, to ensure that your OpenStack private cloud remains healthy, secure and available.</p>
<p>There&rsquo;s no one answer to the OpenStack question. But if the answer for your enterprise is yes, Dell can help your OpenStack private cloud succeed.</p>
<p>To learn more about Dell cloud solutions, visit <a href="http://www.dell.com/cloud">www.dell.com/cloud</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><div style="clear:both;"></div>Teradici PCoIP Workstation Access Software Untethers Dell Precision Customershttp://en.community.dell.com/dell-blogs/direct2dell/b/direct2dell/archive/2015/02/24/cator-ruma-amp-associates-and-hi-tek-manufacturing-enhance-mobility-and-productivity-with-teradici-pcoip-workstation-access-software-for-dell-precisionTue, 24 Feb 2015 20:01:00 GMTLaura P. Thomas<p><em><a href="http://www.teradici.com/">Teradici </a>recently entered the <a href="http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150210005333/en/Teradici-Announces-Cross-Platform-Support-PCoIP-Workstation-Access#.VOzSpfnF9bU" title="Teradici Announces Cross-Platform Support PCoIP Workstation Access">next phase of global rollout </a>for its PCoIP Workstation Access Software, which began with support for Dell&rsquo;s portfolio of <a href="http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/workstations" title="Dell Precision Workstations">Precision </a>tower and rack workstations <a href="http://www.deskeng.com/virtual_desktop/?p=9072" title="Desktop Engineering: Teradici and Dell Launch Software-Based Workstation Virtualization at SIGGRAPH 2014">in August 2014</a>. In this guest post, their Director of Product Management Olivier Favre looks at how customers are using the software to free their employees from their desks.</em></p>
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<p>Last year, Teradici<sup>&reg;</sup> <a href="http://www.teradici.com/resource-center/newsroom/latest-news/2014/08/12/teradici-dell-extend-partnership-to-deliver-seamless-remote-experiences-for-precision-workstation-users-anywhere-anytime%20">introduced</a> PCoIP<sup>&reg;</sup> Workstation Access Software for Dell Precision, enabling organizations to mobilize Dell workstation users with a flexible, secure, easy-to-deploy software solution that provides&nbsp;instant access to a rich remote computing experience.</p>
<p>Untethered from their physical workstation, Dell Precision users can now seamlessly connect to their workstation from any compatible end point &ndash; whether a laptop, tablet or mobile device &ndash; to review, edit and present their work on-the-go, from a conference room, or at home.&nbsp;</p>
<p><a href="/cfs-file/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/Precision_2D00_M3800_2D00_bridge_5F00_550x.jpg"><img src="/resized-image/__size/550x0/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/Precision_2D00_M3800_2D00_bridge_5F00_550x.jpg" alt=" " /></a></p>
<p>Cator, Ruma &amp; Associates and Hi-Tek Manufacturing were among the first companies to leverage Teradici PCoIP Workstation Access Software for Dell Precision, making it possible for employees to access their workstations and 3D applications from anywhere for the same high-fidelity experience as if they were sitting at their desks.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.teradici.com/docs/default-source/resources/case-studies/cs_cator-ruma-case-study.pdf?Status=Temp&amp;sfvrsn=2">Cator, Ruma &amp; Associates</a>, a growing engineering services firm with 80 employees &ndash; many of whom work remotely on customer sites &ndash; required a simple solution that would boost productivity in the field, while being easy for IT to deploy and manage.</p>
<p>With Teradici PCoIP Workstation Access Software, now mobile workers can count on uncompromised visual quality and performance when tapping into applications hosted on dual-monitor workstations at the Cator, Ruma &amp; Associates home office, even under constrained network conditions and/or bandwidth limitations.</p>
<p style="margin-left:30px;"><em>&ldquo;The PCoIP Workstation Access Software gives the engineers exactly what they want: uncompromised graphics quality and excellent performance regardless of their proximity to the desktop workstation,&rdquo;</em> according to IT Manager, Jacqui Michael</p>
<p><a href="http://www.teradici.com/resource-center/case-studies/easy-instant-access-to-remote-3d-cad-apps-with-teradici-pcoip-workstation-access-software">Hi-Tek Manufacturing</a>, a leading manufacturing services provider for industrial gas turbine and aerospace industries with over 200 employees, required a solution that would: dramatically improve CAD workstation reliability in conference rooms, allow IT to quickly deploy new engineering workstations, and enable the company to tap into a broader base of talent beyond the local area.</p>
<p>In conference rooms, workstations were squeezed into audio-visual cabinets lacking adequate airflow and cooling.&nbsp; Dissipated heat and extreme temperatures in the cabinets resulted in high workstation failure rates, which were costly and disruptive to compute-intensive design review meetings.</p>
<p>By equipping some of their workstations with Teradici PCoIP Workstation Access Software, Hi-Tek was able to remotely host desktop sessions for display on PCoIP Zero Clients in conference rooms. The small footprint and much cooler operation of the Zero Clients solved the problem of the workstation failures.</p>
<p>The addition of Teradici PCoIP Workstation Access Software also enabled Hi-Tek Manufacturing to recruit engineers outside of the local region, and the Dell Precision workstations were simple to set up and easy to manage.</p>
<p style="margin-left:30px;"><em>&ldquo;The PCoIP Workstation Access Software was super easy &ndash; much easier than installing a hardware solution. Installation was literally a five-minute process, and the solution was up and running on both sides &ndash; host and client,&rdquo;</em> said Paul Meredith, IT manager at Hi-Tek Manufacturing</p>
<p>These are just a couple of examples that show how Dell and Teradici are enhancing mobility for engineers, architects and designers through the use of instant remote access software.</p>
<p>To learn more, visit <a href="http://www.teradici.com/workstaton/access-software">PCoIP Workstation Access Software</a> and download the <a href="http://connect.teradici.com/access-sw-trial">30-day free trial</a>.</p>
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<p><b><a href="/cfs-file/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/teradici_5F00_olivier_2D00_favre_5F00_130x.jpg"><img src="/resized-image/__size/130x187/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/teradici_5F00_olivier_2D00_favre_5F00_130x.jpg" width="130" height="187" alt="Photo of Olivier Favre, Director of Product Management at Teradici" style="margin-left:10px;margin-right:10px;float:left;" /></a>Olivier Favre, Director of Product Management, Teradici</b></p>
<p>Olivier Favre is the director of product management at Teradici, looking after the workstation portfolio and the newly launched PCoIP Workstation Access Software. He is responsible for managing portfolio lifecycle and defining new products that meet the needs of the workstation verticals for remote access. Before moving to the workstation and virtual workspace industry, Olivier held several product management positions in the Telecom sector and has experience working in both North America and Europe. He holds a MBA from Kellogg School of Management, and Master Degree of Engineering from France.</p><div style="clear:both;"></div>Team South Africa Prep for "Three-peat" in Student Cluster Competitionhttp://en.community.dell.com/dell-blogs/direct2dell/b/direct2dell/archive/2015/02/23/dell-team-south-africa-prep-for-quot-three-peat-quot-in-student-cluster-competitionMon, 23 Feb 2015 08:00:00 GMTLaura P. Thomas<p>To say that &ldquo;everything is bigger in Texas&rdquo; is a clich&eacute;, overlooks that clich&eacute;s are often rooted in truth.</p>
<p>I recently had chance to catch up with several university students who had traveled half-way around the world to Dell&rsquo;s main campus and I heard them say more than once &ldquo;I didn&rsquo;t expect everything to be so big!&rdquo; They weren&rsquo;t talking about the square footage of our home state itself, but the <a href="http://insidehpc.com/hpc-basic-training/what-is-hpc/" title="What is high performance computing?">high performance computing</a> (HPC) environments they were here to see.</p>
<p>This was no ordinary school field trip. These students were representing the South Africa Center for High Performance Computing and they were here for serious preparation before the <a href="http://www.hpcadvisorycouncil.com/events/2015/isc15-student-cluster-competition/">4th HPCAC-ISC Student Cluster Competition</a> (SCC) in Frankfurt, Germany. As a sponsor for Team South Africa, Dell was doing our part to help them prepare.</p>
<p style="margin-left:30px;"><em>&ldquo;We bring them here for a week to meet with our engineering and research teams, discuss performance, tuning, storage and file systems, and give them more insight into HPC best practices,&rdquo;</em> said Vernon Nicholls, advisor to the team from Dell South Africa.</p>
<p><a href="/cfs-file/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/sa_2D00_hpc_2D00_students_5F00_550x300.jpg"><img src="/resized-image/__size/550x300/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/sa_2D00_hpc_2D00_students_5F00_550x300.jpg" alt=" " /></a></p>
<p style="margin-left:30px;"><em>&ldquo;The amount of information is amazing, and the people we&rsquo;ve met have been incredible,&rdquo;</em> student Jenalea Miller told me when I asked about their time in Texas.</p>
<p>In addition to our own Dell labs where I caught up with the team, they also spent time on The University of Texas (UT) campus at the <a href="https://www.tacc.utexas.edu/">Texas Advanced Computing Center</a> (TACC). TACC designs and operates some of the world&#39;s most powerful computing resources. They are able to boast that 198 research projects from 108 institutions are currently exploring 61 fields of science on their systems.</p>
<p style="margin-left:30px;"><em>&ldquo;The UT campus is really different from our own,&rdquo;</em> said Nabeel Rajab. <em>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s massive in scale, and at TACC we got to see custom-built Dell clusters.&rdquo;</em></p>
<p>All of the members of this year&rsquo;s team are electrical engineering students at University of the Witwatersrand, or Wits, a public research university in Johannesburg. The success of previous South African teams, also sponsored by Dell, in the SCC drew them to explore HPC.</p>
<p style="margin-left:30px;"><em>&ldquo;The Student Cluster Challenge is one of my favorite programs that Dell supports &ndash; and has turned out to be a fun and unexpected program to be involved with,&rdquo;</em> <a href="/techcenter/high-performance-computing/b/hpc_community_blogs/archive/2013/06/24/congratulations-to-students-at-the-centre-for-high-performance-computing">said Christine Fronczak </a>after Team South Africa won in 2013.<em> &ldquo;Under a theme of inspiring the next generation HPC professional, Dell has sponsored multiple teams in the SCC for several years.&rdquo;</em></p>
<p>Team South Africa repeated as the SCC champions at ISC in 2014, besting 10 other teams from seven different countries on their way to claim the overall title. This year&rsquo;s team didn&rsquo;t seem to be wasting time worrying about following in their footsteps, though. When I asked about expectations for this trip to Austin, they were all business.</p>
<p style="margin-left:30px;"><em>&ldquo;We wanted to nail down the preliminary design of our cluster, and we made a lot of important decisions,&rdquo;</em> said James Allingham.</p>
<p>The theme of size came up again as he talked about seeing Stampede, TACC&rsquo;s supercomputer that <a href="http://www.engadget.com/2014/12/15/stampede-supercomputer-star-formation/" title="Supercomputer gives most accurate picture yet of star formation">recently made headlines</a> for helping astronomers better understand the physics behind galaxy and star formation.</p>
<p style="margin-left:30px;"><em>&ldquo;When you&rsquo;re talking scale -- that was intense,&rdquo;</em> Allingham said.</p>
<p>So with their views expanded, but with a lot of hard work still in front of them before the international competition in Germany, I wondered if the team had given thought to their long-term career goals.</p>
<p style="margin-left:30px;"><em>&ldquo;I&rsquo;ve grown so much in this field that I wouldn&rsquo;t want to waste it,&rdquo;</em>&nbsp;Rajab said. <em>&ldquo;The expert knowledge we&rsquo;ve gained through this program and the opportunity to meet the experts we have met has really given us a jumpstart.&rdquo;</em></p>
<p>It&rsquo;s something his team mate Rob Clucas would recommend to others, as well.</p>
<p style="margin-left:30px;"><em>&ldquo;Participating in this competition means you get to learn a lot &ndash; you learn a lot about the HPC architecture, but also about working in a team,&rdquo;</em> Clucas said.</p>
<p>They&rsquo;ve got a lot of intense work ahead of them now as they have returned to South Africa. They will be building, testing and refining their cluster. Then in June they&rsquo;ll break it all down, carry it to Frankfurt and rebuild it for the competition where they will be scored on the cluster&rsquo;s general performance, applications that will be run on it and an interview by representatives of the SCC board.</p>
<p>Rajab hopes the results will show the world that South Africa has a lot of talent.</p>
<p style="margin-left:30px;"><em>&ldquo;Though the competition and interacting with the others teams from around our country, I&rsquo;ve met some very smart people,&rdquo;</em> he said. <em>&ldquo;There are lots of really good people that didn&rsquo;t make this team.&rdquo;</em></p>
<p>But, he also had good things to say about Dell&rsquo;s home town:</p>
<p style="margin-left:30px;"><em>&ldquo;You always hear of Silicon Valley, but there&rsquo;s a lot of amazing computing happening in Austin.&rdquo;</em></p>
<p style="margin-left:30px;"><em>&nbsp;</em></p>
<p></p>
<p><span style="color:#808080;">Pictured left to right: Ari Isaac Croock, Nabeel Rajab, Munira Hussain,<b> </b>systems sr. engineer High Performance Computing at Dell, Robert John Clucas , Jenalea Norma Miller, James Urquhart Allingham, and Sasha Tarryn Naidoo&nbsp;</span></p><div style="clear:both;"></div>We’re Now Accepting Bitcoin in the UK and Canadahttp://en.community.dell.com/dell-blogs/direct2dell/b/direct2dell/archive/2015/02/19/dell-now-accepting-bitcoin-in-uk-and-canadaThu, 19 Feb 2015 14:00:00 GMTLaura P. Thomas<p>Live from <a href="http://etailwest.wbresearch.com/paul-j.-walsh-speaker">eTail West</a>, we&rsquo;re excited to announce we&rsquo;re now accepting bitcoin in the <a href="http://www.dell.co.uk/bitcoin" title="dell.co.uk/bitcoin">UK </a>and <a href="http://www.dell.ca/bitcoin">Canada</a> on Dell.com, making Dell the largest merchant to accept bitcoin internationally.</p>
<p><a href="/cfs-file/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/blue_2D00_bitcoin_5F00_347x105.gif"><img src="/resized-image/__size/347x105/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/blue_2D00_bitcoin_5F00_347x105.gif" width="250" alt="blue bitcoin accepted here logo" style="float:right;margin-left:5px;margin-right:5px;" /></a>Following our successful <a href="/dell-blogs/direct2dell/b/direct2dell/archive/2014/07/18/we-re-now-accepting-bitcoin-on-dell-com">US pilot</a>, we&rsquo;ve decided to bring the world&rsquo;s most widely used digital currency to our consumer and small business customers in the <a href="http://www.dell.co.uk/bitcoin" title="dell.co.uk/bitcoin">UK </a>and <a href="http://www.dell.ca/bitcoin">Canada</a>. We are seeing purchases across our full product and customer spectrum &ndash; from software and peripherals to our business PCs and even our largest transaction to date &ndash; north of $50,000 for a highly configured PowerEdge server system.</p>
<p>This form of payment is clearly resonating with consumer, small and medium businesses. And now we&rsquo;re excited to take the choice and flexibility this payment option offers global, maintaining our partnership with&nbsp;<a href="http://www.coinbase.com/"><b>Coinbase</b></a>, a trusted and secure third party payment processor, to make this possible.</p>
<p>When you are ready to make a purchase, simply add the items to your cart and choose Bitcoin as the payment method. Checkout our special <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djDm5fTg0Ro">video guide</a> to see the bitcoin payment process in action.</p>
<p style="margin-left:30px;"><em>&ldquo;Through the expansion of Bitcoin we&rsquo;re enabling new levels of convenience for our customers, making it easier for them to do business with Dell,&rdquo;</em> said Paul J. Walsh, CIO, Dell.</p>
<p>Have questions about Bitcoin? We&rsquo;ve tried our best to answer some of them in our original blog post <a href="/dell-blogs/direct2dell/b/direct2dell/archive/2014/07/18/we-re-now-accepting-bitcoin-on-dell-com">here</a> and in our&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/uscorp1/campaigns/bitcoin-terms-and-conditions?c=us&amp;l=en&amp;s=corp"><b>Terms &amp; Conditions</b></a>, or feel free to leave them in the comments below.&nbsp;</p>
<p><a href="https://flic.kr/p/n9UrF6" title="Image by Francis Storr via Creative Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)"><img src="/resized-image/__size/550x300/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/bitcoin_2D00_accepted_5F00_550x300.jpg" alt=" " /></a></p>
<p><span style="color:#999999;"><em>Image by <a href="https://flic.kr/p/n9UrF6">Francis Storr </a>via Creative Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)</em></span></p><div style="clear:both;"></div>Dell Precision Helps Taxa Inc Engineer the Cricket Trailerhttp://en.community.dell.com/dell-blogs/direct2dell/b/direct2dell/archive/2015/02/18/dell-precision-helps-taxa-inc-engineer-the-cricket-trailerWed, 18 Feb 2015 22:00:00 GMTAndy Rhodes<p><i>NOTE: This is the next installment of Dell Precision&rsquo;s &ldquo;Purpose Built&rdquo; series. Past posts and videos <i>include <a href="http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/04/videos~en/documents~innovation-oxo-precision-video.aspx">OXO</a>,&nbsp;</i></i><a href="/dell-blogs/direct2dell/b/direct2dell/archive/2014/12/03/dell-precision-and-autodesk-enable-design-and-engineering-professionals-to-be-more-creative-at-an-unbeatable-price"><i>Kenguru</i></a><i> and </i><a href="/dell-blogs/direct2dell/b/direct2dell/archive/2014/12/11/dell-precision-helps-design-the-world-s-first-indestructible-yeti-cooler"><i>YETI Coolers</i></a><i>. &rdquo;Purpose Built&rdquo; will share the stories of ground-breaking design that touch the lives of many people.</i></p>
<p>Garrett Finney, the CEO and Founder of Taxa Inc., has spent most of his life as a camper &ndash; backpacking, hiking, kayaking, and spending time outdoors. But he found that the current trailers and trucks available on the market couldn&rsquo;t satisfy the camping needs for him and his family. Garrett wanted something that was lightweight, that he could tow with his current vehicle versus requiring a big truck, and sleep his family of four. Being a designer and an architect, he decided to design something himself that would work.</p>
<p><a href="/cfs-file/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/cricket_2D00_precision_5F00_550x300.jpg"><img src="/resized-image/__size/550x300/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/cricket_2D00_precision_5F00_550x300.jpg" alt="Brian Black, lead industrial designer of TAXA sits at his desk working on a Dell Precision workstation." /></a></p>
<p>As former Senior Architect at the Habitability Design Center for NASA, Garrett was once tasked with working on habitation modules for the International Space Station. Today, he and Brian Black, the Lead Industrial Designer at Taxa Inc., have created a solution for small families who have previously had a hard time going camping due to cost or space limitations. Their invention of the <a href="http://crickettrailer.com/">Cricket Trailer</a>, a simple, lightweight, flexible outdoor living space for family camping, has reconceived what camping should be.</p>
<p>A natural extension of Garrett&rsquo;s experience building small, efficient living quarters for space, the Cricket is inspired by his history at NASA and is in many ways modeled after aerospace design. The Cricket fills the gap between the RV and the tent, but what really differentiates it is its level of flexibility and customization that are built into the trailer.</p>
<p>Engineered using <a href="http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/workstations">Dell Precision workstations</a> and <a href="http://www.solidworks.com/">Dassault Syst&egrave;mes SOLIDWORKS</a>, the Cricket&rsquo;s lightweight aluminum design is efficient in terms of space and cost, allowing for much more versatility than your average RV provides.</p>
<p style="margin-left:30px;"><em>&ldquo;The best way technology and software helps us is using different materials that maybe haven&rsquo;t been used before in our industry,&rdquo;</em> said Brian Black, Lead Industrial Designer at Taxa Inc. <em>&ldquo;Our product is very lightweight. It&rsquo;s very small. But we do pack a lot into that. SOLIDWORKS allows us to really look at a lot of different systems all at once, see how they interact, revise them, and iterate a lot quicker than if we were to just be prototyping in real life.&rdquo;</em></p>
<p style="margin-left:30px;"><em>&ldquo;We have reconceived what camping should be and technology lets us get our ideas into production faster, from a napkin sketch to prototype to test article to production, it&rsquo;s just so much faster than it used to be. And technology helps every step of the way.&rdquo;</em> said Garrett Finney, CEO and Founder of Taxa Inc.</p>
<p>As a longtime Dell customer, Garrett has owned many Dell products over the years. He and Brian used Dell technology to design both the Cricket and their most recent product, the <a href="http://www.taxafirefly.com/about/">FIREFLY</a>, which is the company&rsquo;s second development idea and is much more rugged than the Cricket. FIREFLY is more of a toolbox you can sleep in for government recreational uses such as disaster relief or hunting. Both designs have become extremely popular, and with such high demand for their products, Finney and Black have found that technology also plays a critical role in accommodating increased production rate.</p>
<p style="margin-left:30px;"><em>&ldquo;My company&rsquo;s focus is on comfortable camping, not a house on wheels, so it&rsquo;s not about bringing everything but rather about having a really different experience &ndash; having an adventure,&rdquo;</em> said Garrett.</p>
<p>Watch the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptjOkaHRRp0&amp;feature=youtu.be">video</a> to find out more about the technology and story behind Taxa Inc. and the Cricket Trailer.</p>
<p>(Please visit the site to view this video)</p><div style="clear:both;"></div>All the Data, All the Timehttp://en.community.dell.com/dell-blogs/direct2dell/b/direct2dell/archive/2015/02/18/all-the-data-all-the-timeWed, 18 Feb 2015 16:00:00 GMTJohn K Thompson<p>At Dell&rsquo;s recent Big Data 1-5-10 event, I kicked off my introduction by saying my goal is &ldquo;to help customers use 100 percent of their available data all the time.&rdquo; This remark caused a few heads to turn, and later prompted Jeff Frick, GM of SiliconANGLE and host of theCUBE live interview show, to ask me for more insight into what he called a &ldquo;<a href="http://watch.vinjavideo.com/fyRFrmQP">provocative statement.&rdquo;</a></p>
<p>Shouldn&rsquo;t we all be driving toward collecting, analyzing and utilizing data to its fullest? As I explained to Jeff, we&rsquo;re nowhere near ready to deliver all the data, all the time, but we need to make steps in that direction so we&rsquo;ll be ready to clear the hurdles and take full advantage of opportunities as they become available.</p>
<p><a href="/cfs-file/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/earth_2D00_data.jpg"><img src="/resized-image/__size/550x0/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/earth_2D00_data.jpg" alt=" map of the earth with zeros and ones to illustrate land mass" /></a></p>
<p>Technology is still siloed, unfortunately, which makes it difficult for people to build out all the analytical models today that can deliver answers to their most critical questions. Structured and unstructured information isn&rsquo;t analyzed together, which creates another barrier to getting one single view of the truth. Another barrier: people doing the analytics address very specific, often narrow areas of focus.</p>
<p>Currently, most companies use only a subset of their data for a very specific purpose. But, you can discover so much more if you step back and take a larger view. For example, instead of only looking at revenue trends over the past 12 months, what could be learned if you look more broadly at the health of your company&rsquo;s customer base or the social factors driving trends and behaviors that either accelerate or moderate a drop or move in your business?</p>
<p>Delving deeper into the data delivers so much more insight. At the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, for instance, <a href="http://software.dell.com/products/statistica/" title="Dell Software: Optimize processes and increase revenue with Statistica (formerly of Statsoft).">Dell Statistica</a> is used to pull data from a wide variety of data sources to help lower the rate of infection for surgical patients. As reported in the <a href="http://blogs.wsj.com/cio/2015/02/11/analytics-predict-which-patients-will-suffer-post-surgical-infections/"><i>Wall Street Journal&rsquo;s CIO Journal</i></a>, the University of Iowa takes information from patients&rsquo; medical records, and surgery specifics, such as patient vital signs during operations, to predict which patients are face the biggest risk of infection.</p>
<p><a href="/cfs-file/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/cromwell_2D00_quote_5F00_550x250.jpg"><img src="/resized-image/__size/550x250/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/cromwell_2D00_quote_5F00_550x250.jpg" alt=" " /></a></p>
<p>Armed with this valuable insight, doctors can create a plan to reduce the risk by altering medications or using different wound treatments.</p>
<p>Thanks to the evolution of analytics, other organizations will be able to follow University of Iowa&rsquo;s lead in more fully utilizing their data. We&rsquo;re at a tipping point&mdash;compute cycles now are affordable enough and can keep pace with data proliferation while plentiful bandwidth and cloud services make ubiquitous data access a reality. Today&rsquo;s infrastructures enable us to do things that weren&rsquo;t possible five years ago.</p>
<p>While environments now are ready to accommodate a more holistic view and broader conversations about data, most companies are just starting to buy-in conceptually. Sure, companies want access to all their data, all the time, but most folks I speak with see this as an aspirational goal still to be achieved. When it comes to the here and now, they&rsquo;re pretty pragmatic and taking the first steps to realizing their data&rsquo;s full potential.</p>
<p>Since focus is the hallmark of success, I recommend putting customers first. Start by taking all the steps you can to get all the data on your customers. Then, gather all the data on your product areas, supply chain, manufacturing, etc. In each respective area, there likely will be a dozen different data sources that are interconnected and interrelated. For instance, in compiling data on customers, you&rsquo;re likely to encounter exposed interfaces that take you to product, which can be integrated with manufacturing, and so on. It&rsquo;s kinda like assembling LEGO blocks or deciphering fractal patterns as all the data elements are nested and interwoven.</p>
<p>Another major step is determining how best to empower your data analysts by providing them with the right tools for producing everything from simple reports and visualizations to complex analytics. But don&rsquo;t stop there. If your data is locked away and only useful for PhD modelers and data scientists, you&rsquo;ll only solve part of your problems. Getting data into the hands of your subject matter experts and line-of-business decision makers is crucial because they too must be empowered to build their own analytical models.</p>
<p>The day when employees become their own data analyst isn&rsquo;t too far out on the horizon. Once everyone has access to all the data, all the time, they can create their own hypotheses. Training your employees to think more analytically is something every organization should already be doing to stay ahead of the curve.</p>
<p>What steps are you taking to ensure your company gets the most from all its data, all the time? Drop me a line at <a href="mailto:john.k.thompson@software.dell.com">john.k.thompson@software.dell.com</a> to exchange ideas on how to unlock the power of your data.</p><div style="clear:both;"></div>Tulane Marches Into the Top500 for Supercomputinghttp://en.community.dell.com/dell-blogs/direct2dell/b/direct2dell/archive/2015/02/16/dell-networking-marches-tulane-into-the-top-500-for-supercomputingMon, 16 Feb 2015 20:00:00 GMTLaura P. Thomas<p>Today is Lundi Gras, traditionally a day of rest during Mardi Gras back when I was a young Louisianian.</p>
<p>While <a href="http://www.nola.com/mardigras/index.ssf/2014/03/lundi_gras_once_a_day_of_rest.html" title="NOLA.com: Lundi Gras: Once a day of rest, now a day of toil and coffee">that may have changed</a>, the Tulane University band is still hopefully resting between marching in last night&rsquo;s Bacchus parade and the Rex parade tomorrow. But, one member of that New Orleans university&rsquo;s campus won&rsquo;t take a break for the Carnival season. That would be Cypress, <a href="http://tulane.edu/news/newwave/121514_big-data_cypress-supercomputer_high-performance-computing.cfm">one of the world&rsquo;s fastest computers</a>.</p>
<p><a href="/cfs-file/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/tulane_2D00_dell_2D00_supercomputer_5F00_5.jpg"><img src="/resized-image/__size/550x300/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/tulane_2D00_dell_2D00_supercomputer_5F00_5.jpg" alt="Photo of Tulane supercomputer Cypress built by Dell" /></a></p>
<p>Cypress&rsquo; creation has its roots in <a href="http://www.dellworld.com/">Dell World</a>, our biggest celebration each year. It&rsquo;s there that Charlie McMahon, vice president for information technology and chief technology officer at Tulane, first saw our <a href="http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/force10-z-series/pd">Dell Networking Z-Series Core and Aggregation Switches</a> &ndash; specifically the Z9500 &ndash; that Cypress is built upon.</p>
<p style="margin-left:30px;"><em>&ldquo;There&rsquo;s 132 40 gig ports in this switch. One switch. The latency within that infrastructure is 600 nanoseconds,&rdquo;</em> McMahon recounts in the video below. <em>&ldquo;I said, if we could design a super computer around this switch &ndash; size it just right for this switch &ndash; that would be a sweet little machine.&rdquo;</em></p>
<p>So, that&rsquo;s just what our networking and high performance computing teams set about to design.</p>
<p style="margin-left:30px;"><em>&ldquo;About three weeks later I get a phone call that says &lsquo;We can do this. Do you want one?&#39;&rdquo;</em> recalls McMahon.<em> &ldquo;So, we were the first customer to buy a supercomputer built around this Z9500 ethernet switch.&rdquo;</em></p>
<p>Cypress now puts Tulane in the elite group of universities in the United States that have high-performance computers on the <a href="http://www.top500.org/" title="The TOP500 lists computers ranked by their performance on the LINPACK Benchmark">Top500 </a>list. It is being used for sea-level rise calculations, brain injury research studies and other complex, data-heavy projects that need hefty computational power. Tulane has even contracted with the National Football League Players&#39; Association to use Cypress to conduct long-term tracking of players who have a higher risk of traumatic brain injury, <a href="/techcenter/high-performance-computing/b/general_hpc/archive/2015/01/08/the-cypress-supercomputer-takes-root-at-tulane" title="Dell HPC Blog: The Cypress Supercomputer Takes Root at Tulane">according to Christine Fronczak</a> with Dell&rsquo;s High Performance Computing team.</p>
<p>You can learn more about how Tulane is rebuilding a world-class infrastructure by building a 100-fold faster network and adding 10-fold more storage without adding IT staff in <a href="http://i.dell.com/sites/doccontent/corporate/case-studies/en/Documents/2013-tulane-univ-10011466.pdf" title="PDF: Tulane University rebuilding a world-class infrastructure">our case study on the project</a>.</p>
<p>(Please visit the site to view this video)</p><div style="clear:both;"></div>New Year, New Connections for UK Entrepreneurshttp://en.community.dell.com/dell-blogs/direct2dell/b/direct2dell/archive/2015/02/13/new-year-new-connections-for-uk-entrepreneursFri, 13 Feb 2015 15:00:00 GMTTim Griffin, VP/GM—Dell UK<p>The New Year provides a great moment to take stock of your business goals and make new connections. So with 2015 full of opportunities to grow a business, we were delighted to bring together some of Britain&rsquo;s most innovative entrepreneurs for our latest <a href="http://eir.dell.com/">Dell for Entrepreneurs</a> event, with the theme <i>&ldquo;New Year, New Connections</i>.&rdquo;</p>
<p>More than 100 entrepreneurs, industry experts and press joined us at <a href="https://www.firmdalehotels.com/hotels/london/the-soho-hotel/">The Soho Hotel</a>, in the heart of London&rsquo;s entertainment neighborhood, for our fourth quarterly networking event to learn how U.K. entrepreneurs are successfully forging new alliances.</p>
<p><a href="/cfs-file/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/dell_2D00_uk_2D00_entrepreneurs_5F00_550x3.jpg"><img src="/resized-image/__size/550x300/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/dell_2D00_uk_2D00_entrepreneurs_5F00_550x3.jpg" alt="Crowd of people at the UK Dell for Entrepreneurs event" /></a></p>
<p>Thanks again to our brilliant guest panellists for the evening:</p>
<ul>
<li><b>Piers Linney</b>, cofounder of&nbsp;<a href="http://www.outsourcery.co.uk/Pages/Home.aspx">Outsourcery</a>, leading U.K. provider of cloud computing and unified communication services, and panellist on renowned BBC TV series &ldquo;Dragons&rsquo; Den&rdquo;</li>
<li><b>Emma Jones MBE</b>, one of Britain&#39;s leading entrepreneurs, co-founder of&nbsp;<a href="http://www.startupbritain.co/">StartUp Britain</a>&nbsp;and founder of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.enterprisenation.com/">Enterprise Nation</a>, a small business community of over 75,000 people</li>
<li><b>Peter Briffett</b>, COO of award-winning entertainment app&nbsp;<a href="https://yplanapp.com/">YPlan</a>, which recently secured &pound;15.3m in funding</li>
<li><b>Jordon Fantaay</b>, founder of innovative email company,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.fantoo.net/">Fantoo</a>, and Dell&#39;s first Startup-in-Residence</li>
</ul>
<p><a href="/cfs-file/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/dell_2D00_uk_2D00_trep_2D00_panel_5F00_550x350.jpg"><img src="/resized-image/__size/550x350/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/dell_2D00_uk_2D00_trep_2D00_panel_5F00_550x350.jpg" alt="Panel of speakers including: Piers Linney, Outsourcery;Emma Jones MBE, StartUp Britain and Enterprise Nation; Peter Briffett, YPlan; Jordon Fantaa, Fantoo" /></a></p>
<p>Establishing and supporting close relationships with the entrepreneur community is close to our hearts at Dell. After all, as a company founded by an entrepreneur, fostering this spirit is one of the most important guiding principles at our organization. That&rsquo;s why we&rsquo;ve been a long-time advocate for encouraging initiatives to support entrepreneurial growth through our U.K. Dell for Entrepreneurs programme.</p>
<p>One of those initiatives is our <b>Startup-in-Residence Programme</b> which invites successful U.K. startups to gain access to Dell office space, technology, knowledge and mentorship. By improving access to these costly but necessary resources, we&rsquo;re aiming to help startups focus on the more important things like growing their business.</p>
<p>So I was thrilled to officially launch <a>the search for Dell&rsquo;s next resident startup</a> at the event. We&rsquo;ve already received some fantastic applications, but if you&rsquo;re a startup looking to take your business to the next level, we&rsquo;d love to hear from you! Startups have until March 31 to apply, so do spread the word using <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/DellSiRUK?src=hash">#DellSiRUK</a>.</p>
<p>&nbsp;<a href="/cfs-file/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/dell_2D00_uk_2D00_entrepreneur_5F00_550x30.jpg"><img src="/resized-image/__size/550x300/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/dell_2D00_uk_2D00_entrepreneur_5F00_550x30.jpg" alt="Two men in conversation at the UK Dell for Entrepreneurs event" /></a></p>
<p>With each quarterly event, it&rsquo;s inspiring to hear the value of small and large enterprises working together.</p>
<p>With that in mind, we look forward to seeing you at our next gathering in April!</p>
<p><b>Don&rsquo;t forget to:</b></p>
<ul>
<li>View and share pictures from the event by visiting the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.970445602966787.1073741835.115504948460861&amp;type=3">Dell for Business Facebook page</a> and <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/dellphotos/sets/72157650487804786/">Flickr page</a>.</li>
<li>Apply to become our next Startup-in-Residence! Find all the details at <a href="http://t.co/T6I8ru1D4k" target="_blank" title="http://del.ly/6015IvIl">del.ly/6015IvIl&nbsp;</a>and get your submission in before March 31.&nbsp;</li>
</ul><div style="clear:both;"></div>The Director of Maleficent Wants Your Help for His Next Moviehttp://en.community.dell.com/dell-blogs/direct2dell/b/direct2dell/archive/2015/02/12/the-director-of-maleficent-wants-your-help-for-his-next-movieThu, 12 Feb 2015 16:01:00 GMTLaura P. Thomas<p>All that time you&rsquo;ve spent doodling in class or staff meetings has not been wasted. In fact, a <a href="http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/blogs/education/2014/07/keep-calm-and-doodle-on/" title="PBS Nova Blog: Keep Calm and Doodle On">2009 study by a psychology professor at the University of Plymouth in England</a> implies it actually benefits attention and memory.</p>
<p>And, it could now help two-time Oscar-winner <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0834902/" title="IMDb Profile: Robert Stromberg">Robert Stromberg</a> finish his latest project, &ldquo;<a href="http://insidefilms.com/" title="Dell presents: What Lives Inside">What Lives Inside</a>,&rdquo; when you submit your concept for a fantastical creature. It can be a pencil sketch, crayon drawing, stick figure, painting or whatever medium inspires your creativity.</p>
<p><a href="http://insidefilms.com/" title="Official web site of Inside Films: What Lives Inside"><img src="/resized-image/__size/550x0/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/what_2D00_lives_2D00_inside_2D00_banner.jpg" alt=" " /></a></p>
<p>Simply <a href="http://insidefilms.com/" title="What Lives Inside: Upload sketch from computer">upload a sketch</a> from your computer, or submit it by posting it on Twitter or Instagram with #WhatLivesInside. The winning drawings will be handpicked by Stromberg to appear in the film.</p>
<p>Need inspiration? Here&rsquo;s a behind-the-scenes look at what is already underway:</p>
<p>(Please visit the site to view this video)</p>
<p>My favorite part about Dell partnering with Intel and Stromberg on this creative concept, is that it is more than our sponsorship, but also our technology that will bring this collaborative movie to life.</p>
<p style="margin-left:30px;"><i>&ldquo;Eat your heart out Apple: Dell tablet to film Hollywood movie,&rdquo;</i> <a href="http://www.techzone360.com/topics/techzone/articles/2015/01/19/396667-eat-heart-out-apple-dell-tablet-film-hollywood.htm" title="Techzone360: Eat Your Heart Out Apple: Dell Tablet to Film Hollywood Movie">Rob Enderle wrote</a>. <i>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t mean the tablet will be used in the film, I mean it will be used as the camera to create the movie.&rdquo;</i></p>
<p>Yes, our new <a href="http://www.dell.com/us/p/dell-venue-8-7840-tablet/pd" title="Dell.com: Dell Venue 8 7000 product details">Dell Venue 8 7000</a> with <a href="http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/architecture-and-technology/realsense-overview.html">Intel&rsquo;s RealSense technology</a> which began shipping at the beginning of this year is not only making an appearance in the movie, but along with our <a href="http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/precision-m3800-workstation/pd" title="Dell.com: Precision M3800 Mobile Workstation product details">Precision M3800 workstation</a>, it is also being used to make the movie.</p>
<p style="margin-left:30px;"><i>&ldquo;Bringing this project to life has been a herculean effort by many different teams and it represents something new for Dell,&rdquo;</i> said Marissa Tarlton, executive director, Consumer Marketing here at Dell.</p>
<p>One employee noted on Marissa&rsquo;s internal Dell blog post that this type of user generated content projects can spark a controversy -- like when <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/alanwhite/a-lot-of-people-are-feeling-this-angry-email-from-a-designer#.lqDw92Enz" title="BuzzFeed: A Lot Of People Are Feeling This Angry Email From A Designer Who Claims He Was Asked To ">one offended artist&rsquo;s email went viral</a> last year. But, since the days I was a grade school student submitting artwork in poster design contests and writing in essay contests, crowdsourcing has been a tried and true method for many amateur (and professional) creative people to get noticed. One designer/blogger calls repeated submission &ldquo;<a href="http://graceoris.com/2011/03/how-i-quit-working-for-99designs-crowdspring-and-mycroburst/" title="graceoris: How I Quit Working for 99Designs, Crowdspring and Mycroburst">the spec addiction</a>.&rdquo;</p>
<p>We think partnering with &ldquo;Inside Films&rdquo; &ndash; <a href="http://www.brandchannel.com/home/post/2015/01/21/150121-Intel-Dell-Inside-Films.aspx" title="Branded Entertainment: Can Intel Recapture 'Inside Films' Magic?">the longest-running branded content series</a> &ndash; helps ensure that, <a href="http://www.forwardgeek.com/article/Social-Media-Watch-Dell-Intel-and-Hollywood-Team-Up-For-New-Social-Film-What-Lives-Inside-20150114" title="Social Media Watch - Dell, Intel and Hollywood Team Up For New Social Film 'What Lives Inside'">as <i>Forward Geek</i> put it</a>, we do this right. So, if bragging rights that a creature you created gets featured in a movie is something that interests you, start sketching today!</p>
<p>Better move fast, though. <strong>The deadline for entry is March 9</strong>, and the movie will premier March 25, 2015, exclusively on hulu.</p>
<p>The cast, including <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0004988/" title="IMDb Profile: Colin Hanks">Colin Hanks</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0799777/" title="IMDb Profile: J. K. Simmons">J.K. Simmons</a>, has a bit of parting advice that might help:</p>
<p>(Please visit the site to view this video)</p>
<p></p><div style="clear:both;"></div>Why Advanced Analytics Could Be a Key Driver for Business Transformation in 2015http://en.community.dell.com/dell-blogs/direct2dell/b/direct2dell/archive/2015/02/11/why-advanced-analytics-could-be-a-key-driver-for-business-transformation-in-2015Wed, 11 Feb 2015 22:00:00 GMTRaman Sapra<p>Recently, I read an article in a leading business magazine in which the author&mdash;a marketing leader&mdash;commented on the use of his marketing budget. He wrote about how the fragmentation of media had spread his budget across events, television, print and digital channels. In such a situation it was difficult for him to get a good idea of the effectiveness of his investments. He was looking for deeper insight that would help his decision-making.</p>
<p>Thanks to advanced analytics, there may be some solutions to his situation.</p>
<p><a href="/cfs-file/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/two_2D00_men_2D00_clear_2D00_whiteboard_5F00_55.jpg"><img src="/resized-image/__size/550x300/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/two_2D00_men_2D00_clear_2D00_whiteboard_5F00_55.jpg" alt="Two men stand at a clear whiteboard drawing diagrams" /></a></p>
<p>At Dell, our Digital Business Services team has seen many organizations take the initial steps for deploying analytics to gain insight into the workings of their own value chains. Whether it is marketing or finance, across the board business functions are increasingly leading the charge, and in that process creating a new paradigm for business transformation. But the increasing complexity of decision-making is also leading organizations to look at advanced analytics to provide deeper insight, and help them meet their business objectives. Last year, Dell Services commissioned the <a href="http://www.iianalytics.com/">International Institute of Analytics</a> to author a survey-based report. The <a href="http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/04/business~solutions~whitepapers~en/documents~iia_dell-big-data-external-12-12-14.pdf"><i>Advanced Analytics and Big Data Adoption Report</i></a> is based on responses from more than 300 business and technology leaders in the U.S. who make decisions based on analytics.</p>
<p><a href="/cfs-file/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/7140.aa_2D00_adoption_2D00_cvr_5F00_200x260.gif"><img src="/resized-image/__size/200x260/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/7140.aa_2D00_adoption_2D00_cvr_5F00_200x260.gif" width="200" height="260" alt="Cover of The Advanced Analytics and Big Data Adoption Report " style="float:left;margin-left:10px;margin-right:10px;" /></a>One key finding is that almost 70 percent of the respondents reported their organizations were using, or planning to use, analytics in decision-making. While finding is along expected lines, the surprising finding was that only five percent of early adopters feel they have reached the highest level of maturity. In my opinion, this gives us an idea how much progress we still have to make in deploying advanced analytics. In other words, we&rsquo;ve only scratched the surface. And that&rsquo;s a very exciting proposition for 2015!</p>
<p>Another related finding reported the maturity level of the analytics program of an organization was directly related to the involvement of senior management. Organizations in which senior executives were involved in analytics decisions had more mature programs, and sound investments and direction. In my opinion, 2015 is the year more senior executives will get involved in developing the analytics programs for their businesses.</p>
<p>Traditional senior technology executives, such as CIOs and CTOs, will be directly involved in analytics programs. Interestingly almost 29 percent of organizations have Chief Analytics Officers involved in strategic decisions&mdash;especially those with a higher degree of maturity. As a result, with advanced analytics, organizations can continue to invest in areas that will give them a competitive edge.</p>
<p>Knowing which marketing channel is effective is a big differentiator, and advanced analytics just might help marketing leaders gain that competitive edge. Survey respondents indicated they are using advanced analytics for various tasks, including financial performance, customer recruitment, retention, loyalty programs, and product usage habits. This clearly shows that organizations believe advanced analytics offers significant business benefits and continued investments can help advance business maturity levels.</p>
<p>Dell has recently filed a patent which will help marketing organizations effectively allocate marketing budgets across online marketing channels. This could go a long way toward solving marketing mix problems.</p>
<p>If you are interested in what advanced analytics can do for your business, check out Dell&rsquo;s <a href="http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/04/by-service-type">Digital Business Services offerings</a>, or contact a <a href="http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/04/by-service-type-business-consulting?c=us&amp;l=en&amp;s=bsd&amp;cs=04">Dell Digital Business Services representative</a>. And watch this blog, follow Dell Services on <a href="https://twitter.com/DellServices">Twitter</a> or <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/dellservices?trk=biz-companies-cym">LinkedIn</a> for more news on how advanced analytics are helping businesses gain a competitive edge.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=1097845&amp;authType=NAME_SEARCH&amp;authToken=gEnn&amp;locale=en_US&amp;trk=tyah2&amp;trkInfo=idx%3A1-1-1%2CtarId%3A1423674810433%2Ctas%3ARaman+">Follow Raman on LinkedIn</a>.</p><div style="clear:both;"></div>The Reality of Today’s IT Infrastructurehttp://en.community.dell.com/dell-blogs/direct2dell/b/direct2dell/archive/2015/02/11/the-reality-of-today-s-it-infrastructureWed, 11 Feb 2015 16:00:00 GMTDELL-Grant B<p>The only constant is change! As vexing as this problem is for many functional teams, the IT department is where the constant of change is most evident.</p>
<p>Today&rsquo;s businesses run on an ever-changing IT infrastructure, requiring improved collaboration, communication and decision-making tools. This &ldquo;consumerization of IT&rdquo; relies on seamless integration of applications, hardware, software, networking, and computing to support the productivity demands of the modern workforce. So IT&rsquo;s challenge is no longer to come up with a five-year plan for infrastructure improvements. In fact, many IT departments require five-minute plans for security breaches and failover issues. Workers themselves have become well-versed in new technologies, increasing the demand for BYOD or CYOD policies and a highly informed and responsive support structure. As a result, many IT departments have become reactive, rather than proactive.</p>
<p><a href="/cfs-file/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/whitepaper1.png"><img src="/resized-image/__size/550x0/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/whitepaper1.png" alt=" " /></a></p>
<p>Yet simply adopting new technology and processes, as successful as they may be, doesn&rsquo;t always translate as a significant contribution to changing IT infrastructure enough to add business value. Sadly in these environments change becomes inevitable, but growth truly becomes optional. To that end, many IT department look to outsourcing as a way to not only stay current, but also accelerate business time-to-value.</p>
<p><b>Transformation is key</b></p>
<p>At Dell Services we focus on creating a transformational outsourcing engine&mdash;providing a flexible and adaptable framework that will meet immediate needs as well as sustain the change. This approach is outlined in a recently published whitepaper titled <a href="http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/555/business~solutions~whitepapers~en/documents~whitepaper-transformational-it-outsourcing-a-blueprint-to-success.pdf">Transformational IT Outsourcing&mdash;A Blueprint to Success</a>. Written by Bogdan Udrea, a Chief Technical Architect in Dell Services&rsquo; Global Solution Design Center, the paper outlines a four-phase approach to transformational outsourcing.</p>
<p style="margin-left:30px;"><em>&ldquo;The success of any services engagement and program relies not only on the ability to roll out discrete projects in response to specific business demands, but to also enable a complete organizational change methodology that supports continuous transformation of IT services as they reach their future, business-aligned state,&rdquo;</em> Bogdan writes.<em> &ldquo;We have redesigned standard managed services and built an end-to-end transformational outsourcing model that relies on continuously creating solutions that meet our customers&rsquo; existing and future needs.&rdquo;</em></p>
<p>True to the Dell spirit of innovation, consultants from Dell Services collaborate with customers&mdash;and their workforce&mdash;to drive new initiatives and adopt new service models that not only support the business, but also enable a flexible, proactive IT environment.</p>
<p><b><a href="http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/555/business~solutions~whitepapers~en/documents~whitepaper-transformational-it-outsourcing-a-blueprint-to-success.pdf" title="Download PDF"><img src="/resized-image/__size/150x193/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/whitepaper_2D00_Cover_5F00_150x193.jpg" width="150" height="193" alt="Cover of whitepaper" style="float:left;margin-left:5px;margin-right:5px;" /></a>About the whitepaper</b></p>
<p>As environments become more complex, outsourcing IT functions has grown more difficult. In this ever-evolving landscape, IT transformation has become an overused and often misunderstood concept. This is why, at Dell, we focus on creating a transformational outsourcing engine, which provides an adaptable framework to meet an organization&rsquo;s specific needs. This whitepaper provides an overview of Dell&rsquo;s end-state blueprint of IT, which is adaptable and completely aligns with the primary goals of any organization to build an agile IT, create a productive workforce, support informed decision making and secure the computing environment. Learn more about service offerings, as well as key benefits and features.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/555/business~solutions~whitepapers~en/documents~whitepaper-transformational-it-outsourcing-a-blueprint-to-success.pdf">Download the whitepaper</a></p>
<p><b>About the author</b></p>
<p>As the Chief Technical Architect of the Global Solution Design Center, Bogdan Udrea provides support for Dell&rsquo;s Large IT Outsourcing and Managed Services engagements, alongside with overall solution architecture strategy and governance, service strategy and service design. Prior to joining Dell in 2011, Bogdan worked as an IT architect, &nbsp;senior systems engineer and trainer for different companies. He graduated at The University of Bucharest and holds two master degrees in Computer Science and Information Security. He is based in the US, at Dell Services HQs in Plano, TX.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/bogdanudrea">Connect with Bogdan on LinkedIn</a></p><div style="clear:both;"></div>Truly Complete with Proactive and Predictive Automated Supporthttp://en.community.dell.com/dell-blogs/direct2dell/b/direct2dell/archive/2015/02/10/truly-complete-with-proactive-and-predictive-automated-supportTue, 10 Feb 2015 17:01:00 GMTJim Roth<p>When I started at Dell 12 years ago, one of our biggest selling services was called CompleteCare. Our sales teams understood that this offering covered notebooks against spills and drops, but based on the name this wasn&rsquo;t always as clear for our customers. The word &ldquo;complete&rdquo; implied that this offering covered systems for everything, but in fact, the coverage was limited and to get complete coverage other services had to be purchased. I even remember one unhappy customer who referred to the service as &ldquo;incomplete care&rdquo; after learning that the service name was a little different than the actual coverage.</p>
<p>Today, we are <a href="http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/uscorp1/press-releases/2015-02-10-prosupport-plus?c=us&amp;l=en&amp;s=corp">launching</a> truly complete support for PCs and tablets with <a href="http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/04/services/dell-prosupport-plus-for-pcs-and-tablets">ProSupport Plus</a>. Inspired by Compellent Copilot support, in 2013 we launched <a href="http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/555/services/support-services-dell-prosupport-plus">ProSupport Plus</a> for servers, storage and networking and you, our customers and channel partners, have embraced proactive support beyond our wildest expectations. Now, we&rsquo;re extending that same promise to PCs and tablets. ProSupport Plus is the only complete support service that combines in-region 24x7 priority access to hardware and software experts, accidental damage repair, and the option for customers to keep failed hard drives after they are replaced. And for those of you with over 1,000 ProSupport Plus systems, our dedicated Technical Account Managers bring deep knowledge of your business and environment with personalized reporting and comprehensive insights from best practices around the globe.</p>
<p>These features alone make ProSupport Plus the most complete offer in the industry, but we wanted to be the first to extend proactive and predictive support to PCs and tablets. It&rsquo;s like having a crystal ball for the health of your PC or tablet and much more accurate than your local weather man or the <a href="http://www.zoltarmachine.com/">Zoltar</a> booth at the carnival.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/big-ashb/12121353193/" title="Original image via Creative Commons license on Flickr"><img src="/resized-image/__size/550x300/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/zoltar_2D00_ashley_2D00_buttle_5F00_550x30.jpg" alt=" " /></a></p>
<p></p>
<p>Picture getting a call from tech support to learn that your hard drive is close to failure. You back up your data and get a replacement drive with no downtime and no data loss. That&rsquo;s exactly what you&rsquo;ll get with ProSupport Plus thanks to Dell&rsquo;s SupportAssist technology.</p>
<p>What if IT departments could spend far less time on support and more time on innovation? This is why proactive and predictive automated support is so significant. The support business hasn&rsquo;t evolved&mdash;IDC says IT spends 80 percent of their time on routine support and maintenance and that number has been stuck for years. And we know that every IT department has a backlog of projects they struggle to advance. ProSupport Plus for PCs and tablets frees IT to innovate rather than spending so much of their time reacting to support tickets. <a href="http://facts.pt/14dh1gl">Independent testing</a> shows that ProSupport Plus with SupportAssist for PCs and tablets can reduce time on the phone with tech support by 84 percent with 58 percent fewer steps to resolve an issue. This is the difference between spending five minutes and 34 minutes on the phone with tech support. Imagine how much time this will save those of you supporting hundreds of systems over the course of a year.</p>
<p>Dictionary.com defines the word <a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/complete?s=t">complete</a> as &ldquo;having all parts or elements, lacking nothing.&rdquo;&nbsp; My, how far we&rsquo;ve come with ProSupport Plus compared to our offer called CompleteCare. With all of the features in a single package on top of the industry&rsquo;s first proactive and predictive support, ProSupport Plus for PCs and tablets truly is complete. The bar on complete has just been raised. To learn more watch this video to see ProSupport Plus in action around the world.</p>
<p>(Please visit the site to view this video)</p>
<p>You should also check out what the professionals at Service King have to say about ProSupport Plus and what it has done for them.</p>
<p>(Please visit the site to view this video)</p>
<p>If you&rsquo;re heading to <a href="http://www.mobileworldcongress.com/">Mobile World Congress</a> this March in Barcelona or <a href="http://dellworld.com/">Dell World</a> in Austin this October, I&rsquo;d love to hear what you are doing with the time that ProSupport Plus saves you. Learn more about ProSupport Plus at <a href="http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/555/services/support-services-dell-prosupport-plus">dell.com/prosupportplus</a> and if you are on Twitter, please follow me <a href="https://twitter.com/jimroth">(@jimroth</a>) and <a href="https://twitter.com/DellProSupport">@DellProSupport</a>.</p>
<p></p>
<p><em><strong>[UPDATE 2/21/2015: We heard from several customers that they were hearing higher fan activity during normal operation, or audio distortion during video playback, on various systems now featuring SupportAssist. Our teams have identified a root cause and implemented a quick fix with positive results. If you are experiencing these symptoms after Support Assist was installed on your system, you can apply the hotfix following the instructions here:&nbsp;<a href="http://dell.to/1EduQdc">http://dell.to/1EduQdc</a>]</strong></em></p>
<p><em>&nbsp;</em></p>
<p><span style="color:#808080;"><em>Zoltar image by<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/big-ashb/" title="Flickr Profile: Ashley Buttle"> Ashley Buttle</a> via Creative Commons.</em></span></p><div style="clear:both;"></div>As Cloud’s Impact on Analytics Grows, EMA Research Shows Dell Statistica Leads Wayhttp://en.community.dell.com/dell-blogs/direct2dell/b/direct2dell/archive/2015/02/05/as-cloud-s-impact-on-analytics-grows-ema-research-shows-dell-statistica-leads-wayThu, 05 Feb 2015 17:00:00 GMTJohn Whittaker<p>As you may have noticed, analytics is a pretty hot topic at Dell. If you&rsquo;ve been fortunate enough to hear Michael Dell talk about the trends most impacting IT right now, then you&rsquo;ve undoubtedly heard him talk about <a href="http://youtu.be/MtIp7CHLdWA" title="Dell World 2014: Opening Keynote - The power and promise of the data economy">The Data Economy</a> and how leveraging analytics to transform data into insights is the defining business opportunity of our time.</p>
<p><a href="http://365fullframe.com/" title="Photo courtesy of Geoff Livingston/356 Full Frame"><img src="/resized-image/__size/550x300/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/tunnel_2D00_geoff_2D00_livingston_5F00_550.jpg" width="550" height="300" alt="Photo of the tunnel connecting the East and West Wings of the National Gallery of Art." title="Into the Light" /></a></p>
<p></p>
<p>You may have seen media&nbsp;<a href="http://www.eweek.com/database/big-data-or-big-disappointment-experts-debate-hype-versus-reality.html">coverage</a>&nbsp;of our recent 1-5-10 Series Big Data Discussion, in which numerous media and analysts joined Dell executives for an in-depth discussion that largely centered on the transformative power of advanced analytics. Or perhaps, you read my recent blog in which I <a href="/dell-blogs/direct2dell/b/direct2dell/archive/2015/01/19/predictions-for-2015-analytics-here-analytics-there-analytics-everywhere">predicted</a> that 2015 would the year of analytics.</p>
<p>Clearly, we love talking about the power and potential of analytics &ndash; no one more so than me. Lately, however, I find it increasingly difficult to talk about analytics without also talking about the role of cloud. Given the distributed nature of data &ndash; many companies have as much data emanating from cloud-based sources as they do from their own data centers &ndash; you really can&rsquo;t overstate the importance of analytic tooling that seamlessly connects to data regardless of where it resides. Nor, as Dell Software president John Swainson pointed out in his <a href="/dell-blogs/direct2dell/b/direct2dell/archive/2015/01/26/dell-software-tools-for-big-data-and-cloud-analytics">recent blog</a>, can you ignore the opex and scalability benefits cloud delivers to analytic environments.</p>
<p><b>EMA survey shows Dell Statistica leads the way </b></p>
<p>Against this backdrop, we were thrilled when the results of a just-released study on &ldquo;Analytics and Business Intelligence in the Cloud&rdquo; by the outstanding analyst research firm Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) revealed that Dell Statistica was identified as the most popular analytics solution used in association with cloud-based analytics projects. According to the survey, 36.5 percent of respondents&rsquo; projects that utilize a platform to perform analytical workloads implemented Dell Statistica as part of their analytical environment.</p>
<p><a href="/cfs-file/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/Statistica_2D00_EMA_2D00_graphic.gif"><img src="/resized-image/__size/550x341/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/Statistica_2D00_EMA_2D00_graphic.gif" width="550" height="341" alt="Chart image courtesy of &ldquo;EMA Analytics and Business Intelligence in the Cloud,&rdquo; January 2015." /></a></p>
<p>The survey, which assessed 841 cloud-based analytics and BI projects, is a significant one for Dell, for two reasons. First, it provides validated, third-party proof that Statistica is the tool of choice for companies that needs to connect with diverse sets of data, including and especially cloud data sets. More importantly, when you combine Statistica&rsquo;s prowess with that of Dell Boomi, which consistently ranks as the industry&rsquo;s top integration solution, as well as Spotlight Essentials, Dell&rsquo;s unique collective intelligence engine that places essential components of a complete SQL monitoring and diagnostics solution in a single place, you can clearly see how Dell is well positioned to help customers deal with the impact <a href="/techcenter/information-management/b/weblog/archive/2015/01/27/driving-innovation-with-a-cloud-first-culture">cloud</a> is having &ndash; and will continue to have &ndash; in the data management space.</p>
<p>That impact, according to EMA&rsquo;s research, is nothing short of significant. According to John Myers, Managing Research Director of EMA&rsquo;s BI/DW Practice,<b> </b>&ldquo;The aim of this research project was to provide an excellent view of cloud-based analytics and business intelligence strategies around the globe in terms of strategy, project implementation, and horizontal infrastructure. The extent to which respondents indicate that they are already actively engaged in cloud-based analytics project, combined with their growing level investment in this area, shows that cloud continues to play a critical and expanding role in the world of analytics and business intelligence. Going forward, companies looking to maximize the ROI on their analytics and business intelligence expenditures need to make sure they&rsquo;re investing in cloud-aware tools that can connect to disparate data sources and manage the complexity of a distributed data environment.&rdquo;&nbsp;</p>
<p><b>Notable findings </b></p>
<p>The <a href="https://software.dell.com/whitepaper/analytics-in-the-cloud-a-study-conducted-by-enterprise-management-asso873965">full report</a> is loaded with interesting findings, so I highly recommend giving it a read, but here are some of the findings and trends that I thought stood out most:</p>
<ul>
<li>56 percent of respondents have cloud-based analytics projects in flight that they consider either essential or important to their organization, while 40 percent indicated that have five or more different cloud-based analytics projects ongoing.&nbsp; In other words, companies aren&rsquo;t just experimenting here. Cloud&rsquo;s impact on analytics is real and it&rsquo;s ongoing.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Not surprisingly, companies identified security as the aspect of cloud-based analytics implementations they consider most critical, with reliability, performance and cost benefits following closely behind.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Budgets are growing. More than 56 percent of respondents indicated that their budgets for cloud-based analytics projects fell between $1 million and $25 million, with more than a quarter of those same folks indicating that this represented an increase of between 10 and 25 percent over 2013. Most interestingly, more than half of the organizations surveyed indicated that they received at least some budget from sources outside of IT. If it wasn&rsquo;t already abundantly clear, the need for strong collaboration between IT and line of business is obvious.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>As legendary football broadcaster John Madden was fond of saying, speed kills (in a good way). That&rsquo;s absolutely true when it comes to analytics and BI. The faster companies can get projects implemented and get insights delivered, the better. According to the EMA study, primary business driver behind implementing a cloud-based project is to decrease the time to delivery of analytical and business intelligence. In others, to speed things along.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<p>I&rsquo;d like to close by echoing John Myers&rsquo; sentiments: The role cloud plays in the world of analytics is only going to grow larger and more critical in the months and years ahead. As the saying goes &ndash; resistance is futile. Companies that embrace this reality and invest accordingly will those that benefit most.&nbsp; &nbsp;</p>
<p></p>
<p><span style="color:#808080;"><i>Tunnel photo courtesy of Geoff Livingston/<a href="http://365fullframe.com/"><span style="color:#808080;">356 Full Frame</span></a>. </i></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#808080;"><i>Chart image courtesy of &ldquo;EMA Analytics and Business Intelligence in the Cloud,&rdquo; January 2015.</i></span></p><div style="clear:both;"></div>Dell SAP Shop Floor Enables Best-in-Class Manufacturinghttp://en.community.dell.com/dell-blogs/direct2dell/b/direct2dell/archive/2015/02/04/dell-sap-shop-floor-enables-best-in-class-manufacturingWed, 04 Feb 2015 22:00:00 GMTChristian Schmidt<p class="Normalnoindent">If you don&rsquo;t work in manufacturing, you may not be familiar with the term &ldquo;Shop Floor,&rdquo; which typically refers to the assembly or production area of a plant. Most often, this aspect of manufacturing requires unique software solutions and processes, separate from core Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems.</p>
<p class="Normalnoindent">From a Dell SAP Practice perspective, enabling a &ldquo;Smart Factory&rdquo; is the core focus of the <a href="http://www.dell.com/sapshopfloor">SAP Shop Floor Practice</a>. Our goal is to transform manufacturing operations from disconnected, manual processes into digitized intelligent platforms, enabling best-in-class manufacturing processes. To achieve this, we utilize the SAP Manufacturing Execution System (MES), currently consisting of SAP Manufacturing Execution (ME), SAP Manufacturing Integration and Intelligence (MII), SAP Plant Connectivity (PCo) as well as SAP Fiori, the new user experience from SAP.</p>
<p class="Normalnoindent"><a href="/cfs-file/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/dell_2D00_sap_2D00_shop_2D00_floor_5F00_550x281.jpg"><img src="/resized-image/__size/550x281/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/dell_2D00_sap_2D00_shop_2D00_floor_5F00_550x281.jpg" alt=" " /></a></p>
<p class="Normalnoindent">Our Shop Floor team is globally distributed, with SAP professionals in North America, EMEA and India. This enables us to offer a &ldquo;following the sun&rdquo; delivery model. Our Dell team is widely diverse. Here&rsquo;s a glance of a few key players:</p>
<p class="Normalnoindent">&nbsp;<a href="/cfs-file/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/jay_2D00_monahan.jpg"><img src="/resized-image/__size/200x200/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/jay_2D00_monahan.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Photo of Jay Monahan" style="float:left;margin:10px;" /></a><b>Jay Monahan (U.S.)</b></p>
<p class="Normalnoindent">As Global SAP Shop Floor Lead, Jay is the point person for coordinating our resources and projects as well as being among the initial contacts with new and existing customers. With more than 19 years of cross-industry consulting experience, he has the perfect background for his role.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p class="Normalnoindent">&nbsp;<a href="/cfs-file/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/kevin_2D00_hunter.jpg"><img src="/resized-image/__size/200x200/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/kevin_2D00_hunter.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Photo of Kevin Hunter" style="float:right;" /></a><b>Kevin Hunter (UK)</b></p>
<p class="Normalnoindent">Before Joining Dell, Kevin had many different roles. He worked as Product Engineer, Program Manager and as Manufacturing Systems Expert focusing on Visiprise, the predecessor of SAP ME. His work in the Electronics and Aerospace and Defense sector gives him a strong background&mdash;not only in manufacturing and business processes&mdash;but also in working in high-security environments.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p class="Normalnoindent"><b><a href="/cfs-file/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/srinivas_2D00_mupparshetty.jpg"><img src="/resized-image/__size/199x199/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/srinivas_2D00_mupparshetty.jpg" width="100" height="100" alt="Photo of Srinivas Mupparshetty" style="float:left;margin:10px;" /></a>Srinivas Mupparshetty (India)</b></p>
<p class="Normalnoindent">Within our practice, Srinivas is working as Technical Architect. His background as MII Consultant and Software Engineer is highly valuable within our development team. His abundant practical experience in manufacturing processes and shop floor production enables him to deliver the best user experience possible to our customers.</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<p class="Normalnoindent">Part of delivering an outstanding customer solution is, of course, in-depth knowledge of the products we offer. But practical manufacturing and business experience is also an essential component. As every company is different, our products need to be tailored to meet customer requirements for the best experience. Many of our team members have worked with SAP products in manufacturing environments, and this knowledge flows into every customer project.</p>
<p class="Normalnoindent">Multiple years of cross-industry experience, and various deployments within Consumable Products, Aerospace and Defense (<a href="http://i.dell.com/sites/doccontent/corporate/case-studies/en/Documents/2012-mbda-10010283.pdf">MBDA Germany</a>), discrete Manufacturing (<a href="http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/04/videos~en/documents~greene-tweed-optimizing-mobile.aspx">Greene Tweed</a>) and high-tech electronics manufacturing (<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwcRXBHQpZk&amp;index=1&amp;list=PLmbFlhPb2qyUrbkC-_VfChI1f64TTJbI">Landis+Gyr</a>) gives Dell the ability to provide the best solution possible for individual needs and requirements. Our Dell SAP practices is not only focused on SAP Shop Floor (residing within Dell Services), but we also offer services for Core Implementations, Analytics, Modernization and Mobility, which gives our customers the opportunity to have a one-stop provider for all their business needs.</p>
<p class="Normalnoindent">To learn more about the solutions we offer, stop by our <a href="http://www.dell.com/sapshopfloor">SAP Shop Floor page</a>. &nbsp;There, you&rsquo;ll find solutions details, customer stories and current contacts. Or check out our <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmbFlhPb2qyUrbkC-_VfChI1f64TTJbIs">YouTube Channel</a>, currently featuring videos from <a href="http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/04/videos~en/documents~greene-tweed-optimizing-mobile.aspx">Greene Tweed</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwcRXBHQpZk&amp;index=1&amp;list=PLmbFlhPb2qyUrbkC-_VfChI1f64TTJbI">Landis+Gyr</a>.</p>
<p class="Normalnoindent">Watch here for future posts that will showcase how Dell can help you boost your shop floor performance, profile new offerings (such as SAP&rsquo;s Internet of Things [IoT] initiative), and highlight up-coming events.</p><div style="clear:both;"></div>The Power of the Dell Women’s Entrepreneur Networkhttp://en.community.dell.com/dell-blogs/direct2dell/b/direct2dell/archive/2015/02/03/power-of-the-dell-women-entrepreneur-network-dwenTue, 03 Feb 2015 22:00:00 GMTLaura P. Thomas<p><i>The following is a post from Mandy Gilbert that she originally shared in our <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/groups?mostRecent=&amp;gid=3671396&amp;trk=my_groups-tile-flipgrp">Women Powering Business Network</a> group on LinkedIn. At my request, she&rsquo;s agreed to let me share it with the larger audience here.</i></p>
<p>***********************</p>
<p>Last year I had the opportunity to attend my second Dell Women&rsquo;s Entrepreneur Network (DWEN) conference, this one in Austin, TX. The trip, much like my first DWEN conference, would have a major impact on my life as an entrepreneur and individual.</p>
<p><a href="/cfs-file/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/dwen_2D00_dinner_2D00_austin_5F00_550x300.jpg"><img src="/resized-image/__size/550x300/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/dwen_2D00_dinner_2D00_austin_5F00_550x300.jpg" alt="Attendees of Dell Women&rsquo;s Entrepreneur Network (DWEN) conference eating dinner in Austin, TX" /></a></p>
<p>I had been invited to a couple of DWEN events before I could actually attend one.&nbsp; With so many conference invitations, as well as multiple offices to manage, I&rsquo;m on the road a great deal.&nbsp; Deciding which events are the best investment of my time and money is an ongoing challenge.</p>
<p>My first DWEN experience was in India three years ago. I was very excited, and at the time I committed to the event, every aspect of my life was in balance.&nbsp; I had just been ranked one of Canada&rsquo;s top female entrepreneurs, had expanded operations to four offices in three countries, my family was great, business was stable&mdash;in short, I felt like a million bucks. But then, shortly after making those arrangements, all aspects of my life started to fall apart.&nbsp;</p>
<ul>
<li>My new office in Europe was struggling and quickly depleted my initial, sizable investment. I had a very sluggish start with our U.S. operations which led to staff turnover. Then, the rock of the business, our Canadian operations, hit a wall and our business declined by 40 per cent overnight, representing a $200,000 loss over three months on top of losses at our other struggling offices.&nbsp; This decline in revenue required staff changes, which meant letting go a friend of 10 years, who proceeded to sever our relationship on the spot.</li>
<li>Simultaneously my sister and best friend&mdash;also an employee&mdash;who had just celebrated her 40<sup>th</sup> birthday, was diagnosed with aggressive *** cancer.</li>
</ul>
<p>With four offices in the red, my employees panicked and began questioning my decisions and actions. My sister began aggressive chemotherapy and I was trying to be there for her daughters and support her through the emotional rollercoaster of diagnosis, treatment and recovery. I was juggling travel with doctors&rsquo; appointments, committing time to reversing the company&rsquo;s financial decline and workplace cultural malaise, not to mention trying to be around (never mind present or happy) for my two young sons and husband.</p>
<p>We had a long layover in New York City before heading to New Delhi and as we were about to board, I had my first interaction with Dell&rsquo;s Entrepreneur In Residence (EIR). Her name was Ingrid, and she greeted me warmly before proceeding to introduce me to several Dell executives, all of whom were incredibly genuine and friendly.&nbsp; That encounter left an amazing impression and even though I felt professionally paralyzed, broken and sad, they provided a sense of support.</p>
<p><a href="/cfs-file/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/dwen_2D00_india_2D00_convo_5F00_550x269.jpg"><img src="/resized-image/__size/550x0/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/dwen_2D00_india_2D00_convo_5F00_550x269.jpg" alt=" Two women in conversation at the Dell Women's Entrepreneur Network event in India" /></a></p>
<p>It didn&rsquo;t stop there. DWEN surprised me at every turn &ndash; from the involvement of Dell&rsquo;s global executives to the transparency and storytelling from presenters and fellow entrepreneurs. All of them reinforced DWEN&rsquo;s purpose: &nbsp;to help support and inspire women entrepreneurs around the globe. Not once did I feel that Dell was pushing itself on us or promoting its self-interest. That created an incredible sense of appreciation and loyalty.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Through various sessions, conversations and interactions with inspiring people in an unforgettable country, I left comforted and reassured that I wasn&rsquo;t alone in my struggles. That helped give me the strength to return to my life with my head held high.&nbsp;</p>
<p class="s2">Two years later, I was back&nbsp;on a flight to&nbsp;the DWEN&nbsp;conference in Dell&rsquo;s hometown of Austin. &nbsp;I&nbsp;soon ran into Jen Evans, a fellow Canadian and past client who I had admired from afar for years. Only this time she was overcome by a&nbsp;profound sadness. &nbsp;After talking to her I learned about her&nbsp;professional struggles. She was running four early-stage companies, one of which was failing. She was broke, had taken on too much and was living&nbsp;a high-stakes, high-stress existence&mdash;but without the quality of life that I&rsquo;d&nbsp;since&nbsp;come to appreciate and value above all else.&nbsp;</p>
<p class="s2">Because of the&nbsp;DWEN connections&nbsp;I made the year before, I was able to connect her to several key individuals immediately&mdash;specifically,&nbsp;VIPs who made time to review her challenges and share&nbsp;strategies&nbsp;on&nbsp;how she could turn it all around.&nbsp;Much like my experience the year before, that&nbsp;insight and intervention&nbsp;became&nbsp;a turning point in her life, allowing her the necessary perspective to make major personal and professional changes that have helped put her businesses on a new and more prosperous path, including a contract for one of her companies with Dell!&nbsp;</p>
<p>I&rsquo;m not sure how much revenue the DWEN initiative generates, but I can tell you that I&rsquo;m involved with several global and local entrepreneurial events and conferences, and this is by far the most positive, meaningful and important network of which I&rsquo;m a member.</p>
<p>Dell&rsquo;s commitment to DWEN is incredibly forward-thinking, genuine and necessary to provide global entrepreneurs with the opportunity to share, learn and lead in an inspiring environment. This is the kind of supportive environment that so many of us need to help grow our businesses and continue contributing to our local economies and communities.</p>
<p>In short, DWEN empowers us to achieve great things.&nbsp; For that, I offer my profound &lsquo;thanks&rsquo; to Dell&mdash;and I&rsquo;m already looking forward to <a href="/dell-blogs/direct2dell/b/direct2dell/archive/2014/12/08/dell-for-entrepreneurs-women-s-summit-heads-to-berlin-for-sixth-annual-global-event" title="Direct2Dell: Dell for Entrepreneurs Women&rsquo;s Summit Heads to Berlin for 6th Annual Global Event">the next conference in Berlin</a>.</p>
<p>**********************</p>
<p><a href="/cfs-file/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/mandy_2D00_gilbert.jpg"><img src="/resized-image/__size/150x0/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/mandy_2D00_gilbert.jpg" width="150" alt="Profile photo of Mandy Gilbert" style="float:left;margin-left:10px;margin-right:10px;" /></a>Mandy Gilbert is Founder and CEO of Creative Niche, a Toronto-based executive search, recruitment and temporary staffing firm purely focused in the digital, marketing, mobile, public relations, social media, advertising, and design space throughout North America, Asia and Europe. Creative Niche works with marketing departments of multinational corporations, as well as major advertising, digital and public relations agencies. Their clients&mdash;ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500s&mdash;include Cohn &amp; Wolfe, Draft FCB, Interbrand, Ogilvy, RBC, and SapientNitro. Creative Niche has offices in Toronto, Ottawa and Cincinnati.</p><div style="clear:both;"></div>Big Data is Big Business: You Just Have to Get Startedhttp://en.community.dell.com/dell-blogs/direct2dell/b/direct2dell/archive/2015/02/02/big-data-is-big-business-you-just-have-to-get-startedMon, 02 Feb 2015 18:00:00 GMTBryan E. Jones<p>As a marketing leader, I&rsquo;m always interested in understanding trends and what&rsquo;s keeping our customers up at night. According to the recent Dell <a href="http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/uscorp1/corporate~secure~en/documents~gtai-executive-summary.pdf">Global Technology Adoption Index</a> (GTAI), <b>which uncovers how organizations are truly using&nbsp;disruptive technology, big data is a big missed opportunity</b>.</p>
<p><b>While 61 percent of respondents feel they have enough data to analyze, only 39 percent understand how to do it.</b> This type of uncertainty stunts potential growth, and there&rsquo;s nothing worse than striking out when you don&rsquo;t even swing. Per one manufacturing &amp; natural resource organization interviewed for the study, <em>&ldquo;Sometimes we feel frustrated that the return on investment [on big data] is lower than expected. It costs us a lot to collect the huge amount of data; however, we cannot analyze them efficiently.&rdquo;</em></p>
<p>This uncertainty is further compounded when you realize businesses that are effective at using big data have a competitive advantage. <b>GTAI reveals that the average three-year growth rate for those companies leveraging big data effectively is almost twice as high as organizations that don&rsquo;t.</b> This is exactly why <a href="http://watch.vinjavideo.com/pHhxN0p7" title="Interview with Matt Baker of Dell">the latest Dell 1-5-10 Series discussion</a>&nbsp;(pictured below), which brought together industry experts to discuss the implications, challenges and opportunities of technology trends one, five and ten years from today, focused on big data and its power to accelerate business outcomes today and in the future.</p>
<p><a href="/cfs-file/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/1_2D00_5_2D00_10_5F00_538x238.jpg"><img src="/resized-image/__size/538x238/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/1_2D00_5_2D00_10_5F00_538x238.jpg" width="538" height="238" alt="People sitting around a table talking at the Dell 1-5-10 Series discussion" /></a></p>
<p>So where do the troubles with big data stem from? Our research shows it&rsquo;s a number of places: cost (e.g. price of talent, storage, etc.), security concerns, uncertainty in how to leverage data and a lack of in-house expertise. <b>In fact, GTAI uncovered that only 36 percent of organizations globally have in-house big data expertise.</b> Yet, the proven benefits of big data analytics should justify the investment - businesses just have to get started.</p>
<p>We also found discrepancies between regions with regards to the adoption rate of big data. For instance, <b>while 44 percent of global organizations are uncertain with how to proceed with big data, among Latin American organizations the number rises to 59 percent.</b> Additionally, individual countries like India, the UK and US are effectively taking more advantage of the big data they are gathering than other countries like Japan.</p>
<p>At its core, big data analytics provides organizations with the background and intelligence to make educated strategic decisions. Personally, I want to know that my organization is equipped with the right set of insights so they can invest their time and resources into activities that matter most to our customers. And no surprise, I&rsquo;m not alone in this - <b>according to GTAI respondents, big data is a particularly effective tool for marketing purposes</b>.</p>
<p>By analyzing the behavior of potential customers through big data, marketers can take a focused approach instead of casting a wide net and hoping for the best. <a href="http://software.dell.com/solutions/big-data-analytics/" title="Dell Software: Big Data Analytics">We can help you get started in big data analytics.</a>&nbsp;All in all, the end result conveys what organizations need to know about investing in analytics: <b>Companies that are effective at leveraging big data are growing at a higher rate than those that are not.</b></p><div style="clear:both;"></div>New Champion Dell Precision M3800 Mobile Workstation Outperforms MacBook Pro [Infographic]http://en.community.dell.com/dell-blogs/direct2dell/b/direct2dell/archive/2015/01/30/meet-your-new-champion-the-dell-precision-m3800-mobile-workstation-outperforms-macbook-proFri, 30 Jan 2015 14:00:00 GMTLaura P. Thomas<p>You may have noticed, thin and light is kind of a theme for us this month. In addition to the smallest 13-inch laptop in the world, <a href="http://www.dell.com/us/p/xps-13-9343-laptop/pd?fl=p" title="Dell.com: XPS 13 product details">XPS 13</a>, earlier this week <a href="/dell-blogs/direct2dell/b/direct2dell/archive/2015/01/27/celebrating-film-music-and-technology-at-the-chalet-in-park-city-this-week" title="Direct2Dell: Celebrating Film, Music and Technology at The Chalet in Park City this Week">during the Sundance Film Festival</a>, we unveiled the world&rsquo;s thinnest and lightest 15-inch true mobile workstation, the <a href="http://www.dell.com/precision-m3800" title="Dell.com: Precision M3800 product details">Precision M3800</a>.</p>
<p><a href="/cfs-file/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/dell_2D00_m3800_2D00_sundance_5F00_550x300.jpg" title="Dell Precision M3800 workstation at The Chalet in Park City, Utah, Sundance 2015"><img src="/resized-image/__size/550x300/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/dell_2D00_m3800_2D00_sundance_5F00_550x300.jpg" alt=" " /></a></p>
<p>The tech media certainly noticed, and several headlines followed such as &ldquo;<a href="http://www.techspot.com/news/59550-dell-takes-shot-apple-refreshed-m3800-mobile-workstation.html" title="Techspot">Dell takes a shot at Apple with refreshed M3800 mobile workstation</a>,&rdquo; &ldquo;<a href="http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/dell-goes-after-macbook-pro-with-ultra-hd-precision-m3800/#ixzz3QFUs2geq" title="DigitalTrends">Dell pokes Apple&rsquo;s Retina with a 4K MacBook Pro competitor for less cash</a>,&rdquo; and &ldquo;<a href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/2876064/dells-new-m3800-mobile-workstation-takes-another-shot-at-apple.html" title="PCWorld">Dell&#39;s new M3800 mobile workstation takes another shot at Apple</a>.&rdquo;</p>
<p>There&rsquo;s more than just catchy phrases to this theme, though.</p>
<p class="p1">We commissioned a Principled Technologies <a href="http://www.principledtechnologies.com/Dell/Precision_M3800_Premiere_perf_0115.pdf">performance study</a> and <a href="http://www.principledtechnologies.com/Dell/Precision_M3800_Premiere_perf_Fahrenheit_infographic_0115.pdf">infographic</a> (below) demonstrating ways in which the M3800 outperforms the MacBook Pro for video editing in Adobe Creative Cloud. And if that doesn&rsquo;t convince you, you might want to take a look at a case study from creative agency <a href="http://i.dell.com/sites/doccontent/corporate/case-studies/en/Documents/2015-sparksight-10022189-workstations-mobile-nvidia.pdf">Sparksight</a>, a customer who recently switched from Apple to Dell Precision.</p>
<p class="p1" style="margin-left:30px;"><i>&ldquo;The processing power you get per dollar with Dell is twice what you&rsquo;d get from a Mac. For some people, their heart might be with Mac but we have to run our business with our head. As we budget for more hardware, it will be Dell,&rdquo;</i> says Kelly Shores, chief executive officer of Sparksight.</p>
<p><i><a href="/cfs-file/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/Dell_2D00_M3800_2D00_vs_2D00_MBP_2D00_Infograph.gif"><img src="/resized-image/__size/512x0/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/Dell_2D00_M3800_2D00_vs_2D00_MBP_2D00_Infograph.gif" alt=" " /></a><br /></i></p>
<p style="margin-left:30px;"><i>&ldquo;Not impressed yet, and still not convinced Dell actually pulled off a MacBook Pro &lsquo;killer&rsquo;?&rdquo;</i> <a href="http://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/dell-goes-after-macbook-pro-with-ultra-hd-precision-m3800/#ixzz3QFV9g7ic"><i>DigitalTrends</i> asked</a>. <i>&ldquo;Then head over to the company&rsquo;s website, where you&rsquo;ll find the Windows&nbsp;workhorse&nbsp;</i><a href="http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/precision-m3800-workstation/fs" target="_blank"><i>listed at $1,649 and up</i></a><i>. The cheapest 4K model is $1,719, and one with a 128GB SSD and 12GB RAM is still more affordable than the least expensive&nbsp;</i><i>15-inch MacBook Pro currently on sale</i><i>.&rdquo;</i></p><div style="clear:both;"></div>Don’t Lose Your Employees Because of Outdated Technologyhttp://en.community.dell.com/dell-blogs/direct2dell/b/direct2dell/archive/2015/01/29/don-t-lose-your-employees-because-of-outdated-technologyThu, 29 Jan 2015 14:00:00 GMTKirk Schell<p>When I meet with customers to discuss the capabilities they want included within their business PCs, the same three requirements come up time and again. First and foremost, they want to protect their data, so incorporating the absolute latest in security technology is paramount. Next, they want to easily deploy and manage the systems they issue to employees and not have their IT department spend inordinate amounts of time maintaining individual systems. And finally, they want the devices to deliver high performance, have a quality build that last a long time and receive fast and efficient support if there&rsquo;s ever an issue. &nbsp;</p>
<p><a href="/cfs-file/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/dell_2D00_laptops_5F00_550x296.jpg"><img src="/resized-image/__size/550x296/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/dell_2D00_laptops_5F00_550x296.jpg" alt=" " /></a></p>
<p>In addition to meeting the needs of IT administrators, we also take into consideration the needs of the employees who will use the device every day. For example, today&rsquo;s workforce doesn&rsquo;t want to be tied down. Whether working from home, a coffee shop or an airport, mobile workers want to be productive no matter where they are. This is a big challenge facing organizations of all sizes because they must simultaneously keep these devices up to date and secure while they&rsquo;re outside the company firewall. In fact, with workers placing a greater importance on workplace technologies than ever before, ensuring the safety and mobility of a workforce &ndash; while also providing up to date solutions &ndash; has never been more important.</p>
<p>Research shows that employees are not only demanding the latest workplace technologies, they are willing to leave their current jobs to find a role that meets <i>their</i> IT demands. Dell&rsquo;s recently conducted <a href="http://i.dell.com/sites/doccontent/corporate/secure/en/Documents/evolving-workforce-2014-workforce-perspectives.pdf">Global Evolving Workforce</a> survey reveals that one quarter of all employees globally would be influenced to take a new position based on the technology offered. This need for the latest and greatest technologies stretches to the very top of organizations, with those in management roles more likely to demand the best devices as a precursor to staying with their current role.</p>
<p>Today&rsquo;s employees are not only expecting the latest devices, but the technology they use is also having a growing impact on productivity. More than 75 percent of employees believe technology has influenced their productivity outputs in the past year, while 41 percent believe having the latest form of every workplace technology is very important.</p>
<p>As the research shows, a productive workplace no longer only requires dedicated employees and a strong company culture &ndash; it also needs high quality devices that allow employees to be mobile and secure. That&rsquo;s why earlier this month I was excited to <a href="/dell-blogs/direct2dell/b/direct2dell/archive/2015/01/06/dell-latitude-also-gets-an-update-more-processing-power-and-mobility-options">announce</a> the latest updates to our leading range of Latitude solutions. Our new thin and light business solutions including the &nbsp;<a href="http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/latitude-13-7350-laptop/pd">Latitude 13 7000 Series 2-in-1</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/latitude-e7250-ultrabook/pd?fl=c">Latitude 7000 Series</a>,&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/latitude-e5250-laptop/pd">Latitude 5000 Series</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/latitude-3450-laptop/pd?fl=c">Latitude 3000 Series</a> &ndash; as well as the <a href="http://www.dell.com/us/p/dell-venue-11-pro-7000-7139/pd">Dell Venue 11 Pro 7000 Series</a> tablet - all have 5<sup>th</sup> generation Intel<sup>&reg;</sup> Core vPro&trade; processors at the heart of their systems, providing business with the most secure, manageable and reliable mobile solutions on the market.</p>
<p><a href="/cfs-file/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/dell_2D00_latitude_2D00_2_2D00_in_2D00_1_5F00_550x32.jpg"><img src="/resized-image/__size/550x322/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/dell_2D00_latitude_2D00_2_2D00_in_2D00_1_5F00_550x32.jpg" alt=" " /></a></p>
<p>The introduction of 5<sup>th</sup> Generation Intel Core vPro processors not only delivers even greater power and enhanced mobility, but it also brings a range of truly innovative benefits including:</p>
<ul>
<li><b>Leading built-in security features &ndash;</b> Companies can protect data, identities and network access with Intel&rsquo;s<b> </b>new<b> </b>Digital Fence Technology. This advancement encrypts company data when users are outside of the network. Additionally, with Intel&rsquo;s secure managed containers, professional and personal information is stored separately. When combined with Dell Data Protection | Encryption - which encrypts data at the file level no matter where it goes - these features deliver multiple layers of data security and help provide peace of mind for customers in today&rsquo;s perilous security environment.</li>
<li><b>Fewer wires</b> &ndash; You can help eliminate the &ldquo;cord spaghetti&rdquo; running across and under desks and conference room tables with the new Intel Wireless Gigabit technology built into these new processors. Employees now will be able to automatically dock to monitors, keyboards and USB accessories wirelessly. And they can leave the dongles behind thanks to Intel Pro Wireless display technology which allows users to simply and securely connect and project presentations in a conference room.</li>
<li><b>Greater platform stability</b> &ndash; IT Departments can enjoy the platform stability they need while also enjoying remote manageability to track and manage devices from any location.</li>
<li><b>Extended battery life &ndash; </b>Employees will enjoy even greater battery life in their<b> </b>Dell Latitude and Venue solutions through the energy efficiency provided by the Intel Core vPro processors.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
<p>The introduction of the 5<sup>th</sup> Generation Intel Core vPro processors within Dell&rsquo;s latest commercial PC, 2-in-1 and tablet solutions is indicative of our longstanding goal to provide customers with the absolute best technologies available. This helps ensure company issued devices not only meet the security, manageability and reliability demands of the IT department, but also satisfy the growing performance, mobility and design expectations of their workforce.</p><div style="clear:both;"></div>Celebrating Film, Music and Technology at The Chalet in Park City this Weekhttp://en.community.dell.com/dell-blogs/direct2dell/b/direct2dell/archive/2015/01/27/celebrating-film-music-and-technology-at-the-chalet-in-park-city-this-weekTue, 27 Jan 2015 17:04:00 GMTAndy Rhodes<p class="p1">The Dell Precision team is off to Park City, Utah today and gearing up for a two-day celebration of film, music and technology in partnership with Pitchfork, the leading voice in independent music, and some of our top partners Intel, RED and Adobe. Taking place during the <a href="http://www.sundance.org/festivals/sundance-film-festival">2015 Sundance Film Festival</a>, Dell and Pitchfork&rsquo;s <a href="http://pitchfork.com/news/58150-run-the-jewels-twin-shadow-atlas-sound-phosphorescent-to-play-pitchforks-the-chalet-during-sundance-powered-by-dell/">The Chalet</a> will feature filmmaker panels and presentations led by Pitchfork&rsquo;s sister publication <a href="http://thedissolve.com/" target="_blank">the Dissolve</a>; Dell and Intel film and video editing demos; a VIP filmmaker dinner and reception to celebrate the creators behind some of this year&rsquo;s top films at Sundance and announce&nbsp;our new <a href="http://www.dell.com/precision-m3800" title="Dell.com: Precision M3800 product details">Dell Precision M3800 mobile workstation</a>.</p>
<p class="p1"><a href="http://pitchfork.com/news/58150-run-the-jewels-twin-shadow-atlas-sound-phosphorescent-to-play-pitchforks-the-chalet-during-sundance-powered-by-dell/" title="Click for more details on The Chalet"><img src="/resized-image/__size/550x250/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/pitchfork_2D00_chalet_5F00_550x250.gif" alt=" " /></a></p>
<p class="p1">It couldn&rsquo;t be a more exciting time for film in Austin as <em>MovieMaker Magazine</em> just named Dell&rsquo;s hometown the number one city to live and work as a filmmaker.</p>
<p class="p1" style="margin-left:30px;"><i>&ldquo;</i><i>There&rsquo;s a great community of filmmakers always ready to help each other out,&rdquo;</i>&nbsp;f<a href="http://www.moviemaker.com/archives/news/best-places-to-live-and-work-as-a-moviemaker-2015-top-10-big-cities/10/" title="Best Places to Live and Work as a Moviemaker 2015: Top 10 Big Cities">ilmmaker Bryan Poyser told the publication</a>.&nbsp;</p>
<p class="p1">So, we&rsquo;re especially amped to be partnering with the Austin Film Society, Austin Film Commission and Arts+Labor to host the premiere party for Andrew Bujalski&rsquo;s RESULTS and Rick Alverson&rsquo;s ENTERTAINMENT at The Chalet on Tuesday evening.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>
<p class="p1">The new Dell Precision M3800, <a href="http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150127005299/en/Dell-Unveils-Features-World%E2%80%99s-Thinnest-Lightest-15-Inch#.VMeoUmjF8g0" title="Businesswire: Dell Unveils Features for World's Thinnest and Lightest 15 Inch Workstation">which we announced today</a>, is the world&rsquo;s thinnest and lightest true 15-inch mobile workstation, and has been updated with new features including a 4K Ultra HD touch display option, Thunderbolt&trade; 2 technology and an Ubuntu-based developer edition, among other updates, to enable filmmakers and designers to edit clips faster and in full resolution. See <a href="http://www.dell.com/precision-m3800" title="Dell.com: Precision M3800">product details</a>&nbsp;and learn more about Dell&rsquo;s solutions for the media and entertainment industry at <a href="http://www.dell.com/create">www.dell.com/create</a>.</p>
<p class="p1"><a href="/cfs-file/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/Dell_2D00_Precision_2D00_M3800_5F00_550x27.jpg"><img src="/resized-image/__size/550x0/__key/communityserver-blogs-components-weblogfiles/00-00-00-00-07/Dell_2D00_Precision_2D00_M3800_5F00_550x27.jpg" alt=" " /></a></p>
<p class="p1">In addition to the M3800, attendees will have the opportunity to see our solutions in action via a full post-production workflow onsite featuring live RED 4K+ footage that will be captured at the event, ingested and edited real-time on Dell Precision tower and mobile workstations with Intel processors, Dell UltraSharp 4K displays and Adobe Creative Cloud software.</p>
<p>Attendees looking to flex their creativity at The Chalet will have the chance to create and submit character sketches onsite using Dell Precision M3800 workstations and Wacom tablets for potential inclusion in Dell and Intel&rsquo;s <a href="http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/uscorp1/press-releases/2015-01-13-social-film">upcoming film</a> &ldquo;What Lives Inside&rdquo; directed by Oscar-winner Robert Stromberg and starring Colin Hanks and J.K. Simmons. Submissions will be uploaded to <a href="http://www.whatlivesinside.com/">www.WhatLivesInside.com</a> and the winning drawings will be hand-picked by Stromberg to appear in the film later this spring.</p>
<p>The Chalet visitors will also be able to create their very own shareable <a href="https://twitter.com/search?f=realtime&amp;q=%23SundanceMoments">#SundanceMoments</a> onsite, interacting with a themed green-screen background and then watching as Adobe experts use Dell Precision workstations and Adobe Creative Cloud to edit their content into a 10-second video clip that they&rsquo;ll be able to share real-time across their social networks of choice.</p>
<p>The panels will be held on Wednesday, January 28 from 12 &ndash; 2 p.m. and will include a discussion with film experts about finding supporters for independent films in the 21st century and a conversation with animator Mack Williams, the creator of both &ldquo;Archer&rdquo; and &ldquo;Frames&rdquo;, about his creative process and what goes into making these popular shows.</p>
<p>Outside of the Austin Celebration and VIP Filmmaker Dinner on Tuesday, all events are open to the public so if you&rsquo;re in Park City we&rsquo;d love for you to stop by! For those of you at home, we&rsquo;ll be providing real-time updates throughout the week so you can still catch the action by following along on Twitter via the hashtag <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/thechalet">#TheChalet</a>.</p><div style="clear:both;"></div>